Protein to Disease Project 

Intro:

In this project, we were asked to describe how a protein can cause a certain disease. The disease that we were asked to research was Alzheimer's. This is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. First, we began with researching our disease to gain a better understanding of what is is and how it is caused. We then began to compare our protein to a normal protein in order to explain how it is  a mutation in the system that causes Alzheimer's. Lastly, we embedded our information onto a slide and presented our information to the class.  Below, is our project:

Concepts:

Transcription - the process by which a cell makes an RNA copy of a piece of DNA

Translation - process in which ribosomes in the cytoplasm or endoplasmic reticulum synthesize proteins prior to the process of trancription 

Protein folding - physical process by which a linear polypeptide folds into its characteristic and functional three-dimensional structure 

Nucleus - the membrane-enclosed organelle within a cell that contains the chromosomes 

mRNA - type of single-stranded RNA involved in protein synthesis 

Ribosome - inter cellular structure made of both RNA and protein 

RNA polymerase - type of enzyme that is responsible for forming new copies of DNA, in the form of nucleic acid molecules 

DNA - molecules inside cells that contain genetic infromation responsible for development and function of an organsim 

Conclusion:

Overall, this project was very helpful for not only my personal knowledge, but also my classmates understanding of these different concepts in biology. I observed that this project allowed my communication and collaboration skills to thrive. This was due to the fact that I was working with new people and was urged to learn how to work well with them. This took a lot of communication as well as time working together to be able to gain an understanding of our weaknesses and strengths as a group. While these were my strong suits in this project, I struggled to be creative. This can be shown in our final product where it is somewhat bland and uninteresting. I also struggled with critical thinking when we were taking too much time on one section. I could have used this skill to move on but instead, I stayed on this problem for a while. Besides these factors, this project went very well and I am thrilled that I had the opportunity to learn something different as well as share my findings with my classmates.