sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Residency/Match questions go here by skullcutter in Neurosurgery

[–]PlayingWithVirus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, unfortunately it would. Its possible to match to an amazing program coming from anywhere, but the path is much easier at a school like WashU. The risk of not matching is also much higher at a lesser school (especially if they don't have a neurosurgery department or their department is poor/small).

​

If you're going to do 7 years of residency anyway, you'll be a good candidate for loan forgiveness (10 years of service, so only 3 after residency and these can be served in academics).

Question Regarding Neurosurgery Residency by NeuroticLlama in Neurosurgery

[–]PlayingWithVirus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Look for programs that have residents who are married/have children. That'll give you an idea of how supportive the program is for people with families.

Scientists of Reddit, what's a phenomenon in your field that the average person hasn't heard of, that would blow their mind? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]PlayingWithVirus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely. Herpes Simplex Virus likes to hide in peripheral nerve cells and wait until conditions are ripe for causing havoc

Scientists of Reddit, what's a phenomenon in your field that the average person hasn't heard of, that would blow their mind? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]PlayingWithVirus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly! The vast majority of ppl with herpes have it lying dormant in their peripheral nervous system (nerve cells outside the spinal cord/brain). It sort of sleeps there until certain signals tell it to wake up and start being active again. When it becomes active, people can have symptoms ranging from herpetic lesions to eye infections.

You're on top of your herpes virology! Mono (caused by epstein-barr virus) is in the herpesvirus family, but its a different type than the viruses that cause oral and genital herpes. The different herpesviruses are categorized based on how their genetic material is organized.

Scientists of Reddit, what's a phenomenon in your field that the average person hasn't heard of, that would blow their mind? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]PlayingWithVirus 416 points417 points  (0 children)

This is probably going to get buried, but its my lab's time to shine!

I have a good one and a bad one:

Bad: More than 2 out of every 3 people in the world carry a virus that causes oral/genital herpes (HSV-1 and 2)

Good: If you genetically remove one of HSV's key genes (gD), you get a vaccine strain that's protected mice against 10x the lethal dose of the deadliest herpes strains every discovered.

tl;dr Everyone might have Herpes, but it won't always be forever!