Pharmaceutical Chemistry Student Here

[roady05]

Hi there,

I am studying pharmaceutical chemistry at university and am really jus opening my horizons in terms of reading as much as i can about drug design/receptor anatomy, biochemistry and basic human phisiology- of course with plenty of focus on organic chemistry. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for areas I could explore that would further my understanding of pharmacology/ generally cool areas of science to do with psychoactive substances thanks

 

[ions]

Psychonautwiki.org

 

[Jabberwocky]

Hi there,

I am studying pharmaceutical chemistry at university and am really jus opening my horizons in terms of reading as much as i can about drug design/receptor anatomy, biochemistry and basic human phisiology- of course with plenty of focus on organic chemistry. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for areas I could explore that would further my understanding of pharmacology/ generally cool areas of science to do with psychoactive substances thanks

I would recommend looking into Hamilton Morris' work, if you haven't already. He's a big psychoactive chemical nerd/chemist. He has an amazing tv show, speaks at events, etc... he's kind of my idol

 

[Skorpio]

Get the textbook Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts. It is one of the best textbooks I have read and one I am glad to have purchased.

It's super foundational to a good understanding of cell level physiology, especially as a chemist.

Pihkal and tihkal are the best recs so far. Hamilton Morris is great, and psychonaut wiki is good but definately aimed at lay audiences, so they will only take you so far.

Trawl the rhodium archives, that should give you a perspective on some of the (cutting edge for early 2000s) illicit scene, it is pretty cool how some of these folks solve various problems.

Start reading journals regularly. Scan Cell, Science, and Nature every week, read what's cool. Hopefully what's cool will eventually expand. Biological Psychiatry has some good neuropharm type research (but the real hype stuff is gonna be published in a flashier journal, like PNAS or better (I honestly don't read PNAS all the time because there is so much to sift through. I set a bunch of alerts on pubmed about topics that are relavent to me and sort through those each week)).

One of the hardest parts of gaining knowledge is being able to evaluate the quality of statements made by other researchers. At some level, you need to become familiar with common techniques (first hand is best, but going over papers with people in other fields is a good second choice). Too often I will see people here on bluelight posting papers that have shit methodology as if this team discovered a new panacea. Realize that scientific literature is trying to sell a narrative, read papers with the viewpoint that their conclusions are wrong, and make them win you over.

Have a good day.

 

[Gaffy]

Try Vogel, it has all the chemical knowledge you'll need. Very secret. I can send you a pdf copy if needed

 

[izo]

little snippet on the side, didnt knew about the first info:

GABAA receptors belong to the superfamily of nicotinic-acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and are chloride-ion channels composed of one γ-, two β- and two α-subunits that may belong to different subunit classes.

 

[thegreenhand]

I think cross checking any drug you read about with erowid experience reports can be a very enlightening experience. Sort of builds a repertoire of pharmacology vs subjective effects

 

[sekio]

I read every Bluelight comment he ever made

He's a BLer?

Hammilton is someone else, I think,

 

[fastandbulbous]

I was obsessed with Hamilton Morris for about 18 months; I read every Bluelight comment he ever made, watched every podcast that he featured in at least twice, and had a period where I dreamed about myself and him for a few days straight, and bought every book that I could find on his bookshelf from his various web-postings and documentaries. I even went down to 8st 9lbs so I could have a similar body-type to him. My obsessive personality can get the better of me sometimes...

You'd probably despise me, as he sent me an email regarding involving me in an episode of his second series of Hammilton's Pharmacopea, but due to being a lazy bastard, I didn't see the email until more than a year later, by which time all the filming for the second series had ended...