Vocabulary

Cell based therapies- is the treatment in which stem cells are induced to differentiate into the specific cell type required to repair damaged or destroyed cells or tissues.
Differentiation- the process whereby an unspecialized embryonic cells acquires the features of a specialized cell such as a heart, liber, or muscle cell. Differentiation is controlled by the interaction of a cell’s genes with the physical and chemical conditions outside the cell, usually through signaling pathways involving proteins embedded in the cell surface.
Embryonic stem cell line- embryonic stem cells, which have been cultured under in vitro conditions that allow proliferation without differentiation from months to years.
Proliferation- expansion of the number of cells by the continuous division of single cells into two identical daughter cells.
Pluripotent- the state of a single cell that is capable of differentiating into all tissues of an organism, but not alone capable of sustaining of organismal development.

Questions

1. What are the unique properties of all stem cells?  Explain in your own words what each property means.

So the unique properties of all stem cells are they’re capable of dividing and renewing themselves for long periods, they’re unspecialized, they can rise to specialized cell type.

2. What are the two main kinds of stem cells used by researchers?  What are the major differences between the two types in terms of their sources and usefulness to researchers?  Give examples of possible uses for each type of stem cell.

The two main kinds of stem cells used by researchers are embryonic stem cells and non embryonic stem cells. The major difference between the two are their different abilities in the number and the type of cells they can become.

3. List some of the diseases that scientists think may be treated using stem cell research and suggest how stem cells might be used to treat each disease.

Three diseases that scientist think may be treated using stem cell research are diabetes, heart disease, stroke, spinal cord injury, and parkinson disease.

4. What are the necessary characteristics that laboratory-manipulated stem cells will need to have in order to be successfully used in cell-based therapies (what will stem cells need to be able to do)?

   The necessary characteristics that laboratory-manipulated stem cell will need to have in order to be successfully used in cell based therapies are to create a significant amounts of tissue and they have to be able to survive after they have been transplanted in the receiver.

So just think a little about all of this, I feel like the eugenicist and the people who had supported it in the end were very much in the wrong. At that if someone wanted a family they could either have it if they were the right race and had no problem, but if they had a slight problem or were they wrong race they were sterilized here had been supposedly biological dangers of mixing the races.. I believe everyone should have the opportunity of having their own family as long as their head is in the right place. I think if you handicap and you could take care of your child or weren’t fit for a child, then no you should not bring one into the world because they could possibly grow up having the same problem as you. Also if you are a drug addict or homeless and aren’t helping yourself then you should not have a child because you wouldn’t be able to provide for the child , you could put them in harms way unintentionally, or you wouldn’t  be able to give the love and attention because your mind would be elsewhere. In conclusion I believe those type of people should be given the right to birth control, decision to use protection. If not then they may face sterilization, however that is just a personal belief and it may differ from others.

Procedure:

They described microevolution as an evolution on a small scale within a single population

They described population as a group of organisms that interbreed with each other, that is they all share a gene pool.

Migration–brown beetles could have migrated with population of green beetles making the genes for brown beetles more frequent in green beetle population.
Mutation–could cause parents with genes for bright green coloration to have off spring with a gene for brown coloration, making the genes for brown coloration more frequent in the green population
Genetic Drift-the different chances you have in order to have off springs, and the chances change from generation to generation
Natural Selection- when a selection of beetles (green) are easier to be seen by predators and they are eaten which lead to more brown beetles and the generation next with more brown beetles that before.

The Size of the Sparrow.
Coping with Global Warming
Building Resistance

When the guppies were in the present of the predators they would tend to blend in with their surrounding so they wouldn’t be eaten. When there were no predators the male guppies would tend to stand out to attract the attention of females.

The guppy selection in their surroundings.

Part Two

1. Why do some guppies tend to be drabber than others?

It all depends on their surroundings because they adapt to it.

2. Why do some guppies tend to be more colorful?

The bright colors tend to attract females.

3. What role does color play in guppy survival?

The brighter the guppies are the more they will attract a predator and if they are dab they won’t easily find a mate. Although the chances of them getting eaten are less.

4. Explain the push and pull that the environment (including predators) has on the coloration of guppies in Endler’s pools.
Refer to the response in question three.

Part Two

This lab we did virtually at this website. Basically it took us through a lab as if we were the

1. As the medical technician in charge of this investigation, what are you trying to determine about the tissue sample provided to you? You are trying to determine wether or not the patient contains a disease or not.

2. How did you prepare the DNA to be used in this investigation?  First we had to grow a colony of DNA to test it with. Since we use other enzymes during the experiment, we we have to dispose of the proteolytic enzymes before moving on. The enzymes are removed by heating the sample in a water bath at 100°C. In doing so, the cellular debris is sent down in the centrifuge and appears as a solid deposit (a small pellet) at the bottom of the tube. The DNA is contained in the supernatant (the liquid), which is then transferred to the PCR tube.

3. Describe how PCR is used to make copies of DNA sequences. Use the animation and notebook entries in the PCR Amplification step to guide your answer. Note that you may replay the animation as needed. The first step is to melt the sample. This separates the two DNA chains in the double helix by heating the vial containing the PCR reaction mixture to 95°C for 30 seconds. The primers are incapable of binding to the DNA strands at such a high temperature, so the vial is cooled to 60°C. At this point, the primers bind to the single-stranded DNA. The reason the two separated strands of DNA do not reanneal is that there is a large excess of primers in the solution; therefore, it’s more likely for the DNA strands to bind to the primers instead of to each other. The final step is extending the sample again. This step is to allow the DNA polymerase to extend the copy DNA strand by raising the temperature to 70°C for 45 seconds.

4. Summarize the technique used to purify the PCR product. The purification process can only be done had you correctly done the phase to prior to the current one. During this step you will use compact micro filters to filter the DNA. In specific we used micro concentrator columns to do so. The procedure to this phase are listed as so; 
   1. Insert the microconcentrator column of appropriate size into a collection tube.
   2. Add 400 µL of buffer to the column.
   3. Add the entire PCR content (~100 µL) to the column.
   4. Spin the column at 3,000 rpm in a fixed-angle centrifuge for 15 minutes.
   5. The PCR product should be trapped in the column while the collection tube should contain all the primers, nucleotides, and other small compounds that we no longer need. Remove the collection tube and discard it.
   6. Invert the column and attach it to a new collection tube.
   7. Add 50 µL of buffer to the inverted column. This step should loosen the DNA from the column into the collection tube.
   8. Spin the inverted column at 3,000 rpm for 2 minutes to collect the sample in the collection tube. Discard the column.

5. What is produced during the sequencing prep PCR run? Use the animation and notebook as needed in thinking through your answer. In the prep PCR run, the varied amount of tubes (in this case 12, six blue and six green), are ran through the PCR machine to attempt to produce strands of DNA the same as the starting sample. In the second run the goal is to produce many strands of DNA with similar sequences.

6. Describe how the automatic sequencer determines the sequences of the PCR products. An automatic sequencer performs gel electrophoresis on the DNA in each tube. Gel electrophoresis is a method to separate molecules based on differences in size.

7. What does BLAST stand for? “Basic Local Alignment Search Tool”

8. What conclusions did you make using the results of the BLAST search?  Did these conclusions support a clinical diagnosis for the patient (what disease did they have)? The disease conclusions that I got matched up to be a 98% match to a disease. After I “BLAST”ed the DNA sequence the disease that it matched to was called Yersinia Enterocolitica. 

In this blog I’m going to cover a thing called central dogma. The view of central dogma of biology states that the genetic information that is hard wired into strands of DNA is transcribed into individual transportable cassettes. These cassettes are composed of messenger RNA (mRNA).Each cassette of mRNA contains a specific code for synthesis that will make a specific protein. Click here to view a video going over central dogma that uses a bunch of little spaceships and really cool music. Below I’m Going to insert a file uploaded by my teacher Introduction_to_Central_Dogma that gives a brief three page review of the definition of central dogma I gave above.

These are some terms that relate to central dogma:

DNA- Deoxyribonucleic acid

RNA- Ribonucleic acid

mRNA- Messenger ribonucleic acid

Protein- Compounds or chains of amino acids

Transcription- Synthesis of RNA under the direction of the DNA.

Translation- mRNA is decoded by a ribosome to produce a specific amino acid chain.

Nucleotides- A compound of nucleoside that goes with a certain phosphate group.

Amino Acids- The basic constituents of proteins.

In this activity we took a trip back in time to use Frederick Sanger’s method of sequencing DNA. We sequenced four different peoples DNA, only one of which was normal, the rest had some type of disease. Below are pictures of my individual work and results.

The picture above is a picture of the sequences of each person ( Norm, Abby, Bob, and Carol). We decoded these sequences into categories of G,C,A, or T.

The picture above is a picture of every persons decoded sequences. Each part of the DNA sequence gives a combination of the three letters ( G,C,A, or T). Only Norms sequence is completely normal the rest are different from each other and different from Norm’s.

Above is the Codon usage table. Every three letters of a sequence is categorized into the codon usage table, which is a list of proteins. The proteins must be the same as Norms to be considered normal or healthy.

Purpose:

In this lab we attempted to extract DNA from a gram of wheat germ.

Procedure:

We started off the experiment by weighing out a gram of the wheat germ and placing it in a test tube. After that we would add 20 ml of tap water and stir constantly for 3 minutes. After three minutes we added 1 ml of detergent to the solution and gently stirred at the start of every new minute. After the 5 minutes we tilted the beaker at an angle and slowly poured 14 ml of alcohol to the solution. After that we put the test tube down and waited to record our results. 

Above was the first step (wheat germ and alcohol solution)

Above was immediately after the alcohol was poured into the solution.

Above was after we let the alcohol sit for awhile and we recorded our results.

After this step we were able to extract the DNA ( The stringy white stuff towards the top of the solution).

Reflection: The combination of solutions that we added to the wheat germ made the wheat germs DNA able to extract from itself to the point where we could remove it.