Self Evaluation

REGARDING YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE
1. What were the three aspects of the assignments I've submitted that I am most proud of? My cell Lab, Write-Ups and Online Labs.
2. What two aspects of my submitted assignments do I believe could have used some improvement? Maybe my ethical Essay, and my Punnets Square Lab.
3. What do I believe my overall grade should be for this unit? I belive that i put alot of time and effort into this unit and should receive a A or B
4. How could I perform better in the next unit? I could do more research on my lab project to come up with more unique ideas.


REGARDING THE UNIT (adapted from Stephen Brookfield, University of St. Thomas "Critical Incident Questionnaire")
At what moment during this unit did you feel most engaged with the course? I really liked the unit on Cancer.

At what moment unit did you feel most distanced from the course? The first chapter was a little hard for me to stay focused just because it was alot of common sense, but in return made the review easier.

What action that anyone (teacher or student) took during this unit that find most affirming and helpful? I find it very helpful to be able to refer to other students work to see how well they are peforming and push myself to be just as good if not better.

What action that anyone (teacher or student) took during this unit did you find most puzzling or confusing? I did not find any student/teachers workto be confusing at all, everybodys work was layed out very well.

What about this unit surprised you the most? (This could be something about your own reactions to the course, something that someone did, or anything else that occurs to you.) I was most suprised to learn all about the different types of cancer and radiation just because my Grandpa just passed away from it and its easier to have a better understanding of it.

Ethical Issues Essay

Ethical Issue Essay
The Artificial God

In this document we will discuss cloning. Cloning is a method of reproduction used to copy a cell or an individual (producing a clone) from their DNA. There is more than just one type of cloning however. The three different types of cloning that will be discussed are Recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning, reproductive cloning, and therapeutic cloning.

Although there are several differnet names or terms for DNA cloning they all mean the same thing. DNA cloning has been around since the 1970s, and has become an everyday use in our labs today. Bascially when scientists try and produce a replication of an animal they are taking the cell from one animal or human and trying to replicate it into another. The animal/human would be identical, they can make up to several replicas of the species with cloning. This is not the only way however to reproduce something in a lab, there is also Reproductive Cloning.

Reproductive Cloning is a technology that is used to generate an animal that has the same DNA as a living or previous animal. In this process they create animals from taking the genetic material from the nucleus of a donor adult cell and placing it in a egg of the new animal or soon to be newly created animal. For example there was a sheep named " Dolly" who was the first animal to be cloned from adult DNA. However, Dolly died several years after. The final type of cloning is Therapeutic Cloning.

Therapeutic Cloning is the production of human embryos for use in research. This type of cloning is not meant to recreat humans or animals but to help cure and even treat diseases. They also would use stem cells. Stem cells are a necessary factor in completing the research because they are important to biomedical research because they can be used to generate any type of speciallized cell.

We have discussed three different type of cloning and are now faced with what we believe is correct and necessary for future research and what is not. I believe that Therapuetic Cloning is a very necessary technique that is needed to keep our health under control. herapeutic Cloning is basically a way to help humans down the road, reproductive cloning is the regenerate an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as another current or previous living mammal, & DNA cloning I do not feel is a neccessary technology that we need to be faced with. Researchers recentl sais that that may be what meat that we but from the grocery stores is now, meaning that it would not be from a naturally living animal.

Chapter 19 -21 Rev.

Chapter 19

Cancer

1. Cancer Cells

Although cancer is actually over 100 different diseases and each type of cancer can vary from another, these characteristics are common to cancer cells. Cancer cells lack differenation and do not contribute to function. They do not undergo apoptosis, they enter the cell cycle an unlimited number of times. They form tumors and do not need growth factors to signal them to divide. They gradually become adnormal-carcinogensis is comprised of initiation, pr0motion and progression. They undergo angiogenesis and can spread throughout the body. Cells become increasingly abnormal due to mutations in proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Proto-oncogenes, they promote cell cycle activity and restrain apoptosis.

2.Causes ans Prevention of Cancer

A mutagen is an agent that causes mutations. A carcinogen is a chemical that causes cancer, for ex: by being mutagenic. Tobacco smoke conatins a number of organic chemicals that are known mutagens including nitrosonor-nicotine and benzo.

3. Diagnosis of Cancer

At present, daignosis of cancer before metastasis is difficult. Pap test for cervical Cancer, mamogram for breast cancer, tumor mark tests-blood tests that detect tumor antigens/anitbodies. Tests for genetic mutations of oncogens and tumor suppressor genes. A biopsy and imaging is used to confirm the diagnosis of cancer.

4. Treatment of Cancer

There are several methods of treatment for cancer, the common ones are surgery, rediation, and chemotheraopy. The other methods are bone marrow transplants, immunotherapy. Other therapies on top of these ones such as inhibitory drugs for angiogenesis and metastasis, which are being investigated.

CHAPTER 20

Patterns of Genetic Inheritance

1. Genotype and Phenotype

Genotype refers to the genes of one individual. Alternative forms of a gene having the same position on a pair of chromosomes and affecting the same trait are called alleled. It is customary to desginate an allele by a letter which represents the specific trait it contorls a dominate allele and is assigned an uppercase letter, while a recessive allel is given the same letter but in lowercase.

2. One and Two Trait Inheritance

The first step in doing one trait problems is to determine the genotype and then the gametes. An individual has 2 allelesfor every trait, but a gamete has one allele for every trait. TThe next step is to combine all possible sperm with all possible eggs. If there is more than one possible sperm and or egg, a Punnett Square is helpful in determining the genotypic and phenotypic ratio among the offspring.

3. Beyond Simple Inhheritance Patterns

In some patterns of inheritance, the alleles are not just dominate or recessive. Plygenic traits, such as skin colo and height are controlled by more then one set of allels. The dominate alleles has an additive effect on the phenotype. In incomplete dominance the heterzygote is intermidiate between two homozygous. In codominance, both dominate alleles are expressed equally. Multiple Allele Inheritance patter is exemplified in humans by blood type inhertiance.

4. Sex-Linked Inheritance

Many genes on the x chromosomes, such as those that dtermine normal vision as opposed to color blidness, are unrelated to the gender of the individual. A pedigree for an X linked recessive disorder shows that the trait often passes from grandfather to gradson by was of carrier daughter. Like most x-linked disorders, color blindess, muscular dystrophy, and hemophilia are recessive.

CHAPTER 21

DNA BIOLOGY & TECHNOLOGY

1. DNA & RNA Structure and Function

DNA is the genetic material found in the chromosomes. It replicate, stores info and mutates for gentice varibility. The structure of DNA is a double helix composed of 2 polyhucleotide strands. Each nucleotide is composed of a deoxyribose sugar, a phosphate, and a nitrogen containing base. The base A is bonded to T, and G is Bonded to C. The replication of DNA is the strands unzip and a new complementary strand forms opposite each old strand, resulting in tow identical DNA molecules. The structure of RNA, is a single starnded nuclei acid in which the base U occurs instead of T. The 3 forms of RNA are: rRNA, mRNA, tRNA.

2. Gene Expession

Gene expression leads to the formation of a product, usually a protein. Proteins differ by the sequence of their amino acids. Transcription- Occurs in the nucleus. The DNA triplet code is passed to an mRNA that contains codons,. Intorns are removed from mRNA during mRNA processing. Translation: Occurs in the cytoplams at the ribsomes tRNA molecules bind to their amino acids and then their anticodons pair with mRNA codons.