Comments on: Free software shows how drugs work http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/free-software-shows-how-drugs-work.html Science Blog from Freelance Science Writer David Bradley Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:25:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: JohnWS http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/free-software-shows-how-drugs-work.html/comment-page-1#comment-83965 JohnWS Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:39:32 +0000 http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/1129.html#comment-83965 Being both a thermodynamist and an environmental engineer, the octanol-water partition coefficient, logP, is something I run into quite a bit. Something that your readers may like to know is the reason for using octanol. n-octanol has properties very similar to lipids (fats) which of course are part of the cell membrane. logP is also important in environmental science in two ways. First, we can determine if a toxic chemical will accumulate in the fatty tissue or be easily eliminated from the body. Secondly, it can help determine if a chemical gets into a water stream if it will stay in the water column or tend to move into the sediment. Being both a thermodynamist and an environmental engineer, the octanol-water partition coefficient, logP, is something I run into quite a bit.

Something that your readers may like to know is the reason for using octanol. n-octanol has properties very similar to lipids (fats) which of course are part of the cell membrane.

logP is also important in environmental science in two ways. First, we can determine if a toxic chemical will accumulate in the fatty tissue or be easily eliminated from the body. Secondly, it can help determine if a chemical gets into a water stream if it will stay in the water column or tend to move into the sediment.

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