DNA to disease poster
Poster
My group and I decided to go with a poster as we thought is was the best option for this project. We thought this was the best way to deliver the serious message of what our disease can do to the human body. We mainly chose a poster because it could fit in everything we were trying to talk about in one slide and look more aesthetic rather than doing a slideshow which would not look as appealing.
Reflection
Overall I think my group and I did a great job at expressing the drastic effects of thalassemia and the biological functions which go on with it such as transcription, translation, and protein folding. I believe I was an exemplary collaborator to my group as when I finished my part of the project I offered my group mates assistance in their parts and asked them if they needed help and helped when needed. I also believe I did well at being a good communicator by encouraging group mates over the weekend to tweak their parts of the project and help make the poster look better while also listening to everyone's ideas and respecting their opinions. I do not think I did that well at being a conscientious learner because I was working on other assignments I hadn't finished in time during project work time so I had to end up doing some of the project over the weekend, I can improve this by finishing my work faster and trying to focus on getting more in class time to work on the project. I also believe I didn't do well at being a great critical thinker because when there were a few problems on how we would manage our space on the poster which led to a few arguments between the group. Even with the flaws I had during this project overall, my group did a fantastic job on this poster and I am really glad about what it turned out to be I enjoyed learning about a new disease I never knew about before.
Concepts
Transcription - is the process in which a portion of DNA is copied into RNA by the enzyme RNA polymerase. This RNA molecule can then be used to produce proteins.
This relates to our project because RNA can be abnormally expressed as one defects of thalassemia
Translation - is the process by which a protein is synthesized from an mRNA template. This occurs in the ribosome, where the sequence of nucleotides in the mRNA is read in groups of three, known as codons. Each codon corresponds to a specific amino acid, and these amino acids are linked together to form a protein.
This relates to our project due to thalassemia because it can occur due to mutations stemming from multiple genes and can affect the process of translation.
Protien folding - Protein folding is the process by which a protein structure assumes its functional shape or conformation. It is the physical process by which a protein chain acquires its 3-dimensional structure. There are four steps to protien folding
Primary - holds together the amino acids sequence in the cytoplasm through peptide bonds
Secondary - protein begins to fold up and create the alpha helix and beta sheets from interactions between different amino acids
Teritiary - the three dimensional shape of the protein, This shape is formed when the protein folds up on itself. Different types of bonds and interactions help to hold this shape together ( based on the R-chains of the amino acids. Depending on what is different in each aa)
Quaternary - formed by the assembly of multiple polypeptide chains into a single functional protein (combines the subunits that are built in the tertiary structure)
This relates to our project because protien can be misfolded with this disease which protien folding is crucial for a protien chain to function properly.
thalassemia- thalassemia affects The blood within the body and will mainly stop the blood from receiving
oxygen. this isn't good because the body needs o2 to survive as it is mainly powered off of it. its very deadly and the need to research it further and try to eliminate it completely should be a top priority of modern scientists.