Extra Credit Unit 2 Topics: Molecular Biology or Muscle/Digestion topics
Last revised: Friday, March 8, 2002
(Intro text )
For this topic, choose one of the following topics. Collect information you will need, including possible figures. Then write the paper. Don't just copy materials from a web page and paste them together to create your document -- this is easy for us to identify. Write your own text, and where necessary include short quotations from source materials.
Possible topics:
- Chromosome abnormalities
- Aneuploidies and human disease (aneuploidies = having more or less than the normal set of chromosomes).
- Choose a human disease other than Down syndrome that is caused by aneuploidy. Discuss how the disease arises, how common it is, what the effects are, current and future potential treatments based on current scientific research
- Genetic Code
- Mutations and Mutagens
- Any uncorrected change in DNA is a mutation, with a range of possible effects ranging from "no detectable effect" to "lethal". Investigate the variety of mutagens to which we are potentially exposed in today's world. What are they? What kinds of mutations do they cause? Are new mutagens being found as a result of new product developments? What steps are taken to screen the tens of thousands of new chemicals being developed every year, to find out whether they are mutagenic?
- Muscular System:
- Muscular dystrophies ( inherited diseases that produce progressive muscle weakness and deterioration).
- Choose a specific muscular dystrophy and discuss etiology, anatomical and physiological progression, genetics, current treatments, and future potential treatments based on current scientific research.
- Digestive System: Choose A or B:
- A. cancers of the digestive system
- Choose stomach cancer OR colon cancer and discuss etiology, histological and physiological manifestations of the disease, genetics (include discussion of oncogenes), physiological progression, current treatments, and future potential treatments based on current scientific research.
- B. hepatitis (defined as inflammation of the liver; viruses that target the liver are responsible for most human cases)
- Describe the viral biology of hepatitis B and C viruses, and for both types, discuss (within the liver) histological and physiological manifestations, clinical progression, current treatments, and future treatments based on current scientific research.