Intro

This project was by far my favorite project of the year because I learned a lot about Parkinson's disease and had a lot of fun making the project. We started off by learning about DNA and how it works, plus how it is formed. Then we were assigned a group and had to choose between multiple diseases that we had to do our project on. My group chose Parkinson's disease. We had to answer many questions about the disease. To answer the questions we made a podcast and a slide show which was really fun. Overall I became way more educated about DNA and about Parkinson's disease.

Content

Translation - mRNA forms into amino acid

Transcription - DNA turned into mRNA to travel through ribosomes

mRNA - RNA that travels through the ribosome and is then turned into proteins

DNA - Deoxyribonucleic Acid, contains instructions for making proteins within the cell

RNA - carrier of instructions from DNA to create proteins

Insertion - insertion of one or more nucleotides

Deletion - when sections of DNA nucleotides get deleted

Substitution - when the wrong nucleotide is placed in the sequence

Amino Acid - building blocks for proteins

Codon - bunch of three nucleotides

Adenine - one of the four nitrogenous bases

Guanine - one of the four nitrogenous bases

Thymine - one of the four nitrogenous bases

Cytosine - one of the four nitrogenous bases

Nucleotide - the monomer that makes up polymers that make DNA strands, made of phosphate, sugars, and a base

Ribosome - where mRNA binds and is transferred

Genotype - the genetic makeup/alleles

Gene - DNA code for specific trait

Allele - variation of gene

Phenotype - how the gene is expressed, the trait received

Protein Folding - protein chain is created and folds into a specific shape so it can complete its intended biological function in the ribosome

Central Dogma - protein synthesis, DNA --> mRNA --> Protein

Missense Mutation - one nucleotide is changed and it results in the wrong codon produced

Nonsense Mutation - one nucleotide is changed --> stopped codon --> no purpose so protein does nothing

Duplication - DNA copied one or more times

Reflection

Overall this project was very fun but it also brought some challenges to the table. It was not the easiest disease to choose because we had no clue what the disease was going into it. We did a lot of research to understand the disease which made the project worth it because it shows that we got something out of it. As a group we worked very hard and got all of our stuff done. My group contained two of my friends that I get along with very well so we were all very vocal and positive to each other. We had a strong menatality going into the project because we new that this was the last project of the semester so we all wanted to get a good grde on it. All in all, we worked hard and had fun completing this disease project.