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Lesson 8: Poster session assignment (GRQs)
Do your best to research the questions about your disease and submit
before class. Bring your answers to class to work on your group poster.
Objectives
● Work collaboratively to construct a poster that incorporates concepts from the seven five
lessons applied to an assigned disease.
● Practice science communication by teaching another group about your disease.
Why is practicing science communication important?
Watch Melissa Marshall’s TedTalk “Talk Nerdy to Me” (4:34)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y66YKWz_sf0
List three tips she gives:
1)
2)
3)
In class, you will work in small groups on one of two diseases listed below. You will have about
half of class time to share the answers to the questions that you researched and make your
poster board before a “poster session”. Prepare for class by answering the questions below for
the disorder you are assigned
Genetic disorder:
● Factor V Leiden (back half of the room)
● PKU (front half of the room)
Questions (you can answer in any order and you should be sure to make note of any sources
that you use to answer the questions)
● Overall phenotype: In one sentence or a few bullet points describe the phenotype of
someone with the disease (you don’t have to give every symptom).
● Mode of inheritance:
○ What is the mode of inheritance for this disorder?
○ Draw a fictional pedigree with at least three generations and a large enough
family to see how the gene is passed along.
● Normal wildtype protein:
○ What is the name of the protein that is absent or mutant?
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○ What kind of cells/tissues is it made in? Does it stay in the cell (if so where is it
located?) or is it secreted?
○ What is its normal function?
● Information flow:
○ What chromosome is the gene on?
○ What type of mutation in the gene is most associated with the disease?
○ Draw the steps involved in expressing the mutant allele and if any process is
faulty (i.e. transcription) note that or if the protein’s structure/function is defective
describe how a molecular mutation leads to the protein’s mutant phenotype.
(There may be different molecular mutations that can lead to this genetic
disorder, so feel free to pick one as an example you find).
○ Draw what you’d expect to see if you were to analyze the gene products by
conventional PCR, RT-PCR and Western blot. Would you see abnormally sized
gene products? Explain and be sure to include any relevant control(s) that you
should include in your experiment.
● Genetic Medicine therapies: See if you can find any information if any therapies are
being used or explored to treat/cure the disorder. Examples might be gene therapy,
CRISPR, small molecule drugs, RNA interference, etc.
○ Which therapies are being explored or used?
○ Any particular challenges with it?
● Genetic testing: When would most people be tested to confirm the disorder? Would this
likely be done before people decide to become parents? Prenatal in utero testing? At
birth? Later in life if symptoms arise?
Resources you might find helpful:
https://www.proteinatlas.org/
https://www.omim.org/
https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/
Poster assignment:
Make sure your disease name and the group member names are at the top of the poster.
You can arrange things however you want on your poster and use colors and drawings. Just
make sure all the information is on the poster. Remember that your poster can be creative and
visually fun, but don’t spend too much time on this at the cost of not getting the information in
place.
After making your poster with your classmates, you will put technology away for a “poster
session”. You and another group will take turns walking each other through your poster. You’ll
get participation credit at the end of class by submitting answers to a few questions online.
