Welcome back,
This week was slower than most and consisted of a lot of reading and learning. I read two papers one from Sierra Simpson a post-grad in our lab and one for a journal club we do every Monday. Sierra’s paper is about her recent experiment on the microbiome. The microbiome is something I find extremely interesting, and one of the most fascinating topics currently being studied at George Lab. What is the microbiome? Well the actual definition states the following: “a community of microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses) that inhabit a particular environment and especially the collection of microorganisms living in or on the human body Your body is home to about 100 trillion bacteria and other microbes, collectively known as your microbiome.” The basis behind Sierra’s work (and in an extremely short explanation) the microbiome can affect our personality, we literally are what we eat. I could write about this for days, but the sake of both you and I, I won’t. 
The second paper was based on addiction and OCD and the idea of compulsion behind addiction and OCD. Are they the same? Are they different? The conclusion I came to after completing the 30+ page paper was that it’s both. Addiction is not created when you’re born, you have to choose to take the drug and perhaps that habit to take the drug becomes compulsive. But the difference between OCD and addiction is that you can be born with OCD; perhaps it does not manifest right away but it is a disorder in which your environment does not change whether or not you have OCD. While addiction can be changed by your lifestyle and environment, it’s very possible to quit and not have a relapse. There have been several studies proving this concept. (I would love to talk more about it with you if you’re interested).
In my free time, I have visited Pacific beach, been to the zoo (which was fantastic!), and continued to play volleyball at UCSD in the evenings. I have been having a great time here in San Diego and am sad to go into my last two weeks here…
See you next week,
Danika Petit
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