Welcome to Alyssa Blood's E-Portfolio
Showcasing my research journey in computational chemistry
Research
I am researching second generation antipsychotic drugs, with a focus on improving our understanding of how ligand behavior differs between Dopamine-2 and Dopamine-3 receptors. I use Chimera, AutoDock, and HiPerGator to run molecular docking simulations, with binding affinities being produced as a result.
I had the idea for this project, and propsed it to my PI Dr. Perez, who has given me his full support. This is currently an individual project that I am working on as a member of Dr. Perez's team.
My goal in this research is to expand our knowledge of antipsychotic drug behavior, in order to more accurately and efficiently determine patients' optimal prescriptions.
More about my research...
Project Title: Using Computational Methods to Enhance Knowledge of Antipsychotic Drug Behavior in Relation to Dopamine Receptors
PI name: Dr. Alberto Perez
Institution and department: University of Florida, Department of Chemistry
​Time spent on project to date: One year​​
Image Description: Chimera model of Dopamine 2 and Dopamine 3 receptors superimposed upon one another. This was one of the first steps in my process and was done to identify their key differences.
About
My name is Alyssa Blood, and I am a second year undergraduate student of biochemistry at the University of Florida. I have been fascinated by neurochemistry since early high school, and have completed several small research projects on my own through high school classes and personal studies.
I have been officially involved in a computational chemistry research lab here at UF for one year now, and am very grateful to Dr. Perez for welcoming me into his program and mentoring me through my work.
I have a passion for mental healthcare, since it is so crucial to a person's overall wellbeing and is commonly overlooked. My current research focuses on schizophrenia and other dopamine-related disorders, but I plan to move into research on PANS/PANDAS and diverse anxiety disorders in the future.
Get in Touch
Have a question or want to collaborate?
Reach out to me at Alyssa.Blood@ufl.edu
or connect with me on LinkedIn.