Bioinformatics help

[wtwwg]

Hello,
I've just started my science fair project for this year (quite late, I might add). I'm hoping to do something similar to what I did last year, which was an offshoot of the "Tree of Life-II" project. It seems everyone, including the judges found my project to be too confusing... In any case, I have a few questions:

Firstly, would it be possible for anyone here to read my project from last year and give me some tips, or point out my mistakes? It would be greatly appreciated.

Next, my teacher's suggestion was that I compare the genetics of drug resistant and non drug resistant organisms (presumably bacteria). I'm not quite sure what the point of this could be, and the only thing I can come up with is to try and find the specific gene(s) that change to produce the resistance to antibiotics? Comparing that would take ages though, wouldn't it? Very confused.

Finally, I'm considering doing the "Bioinformatics - The Perfect Marriage of Computer Science & Medicine". I've just started reading it, and as far as I understand, the "goal" is to find an SNP associated with that disease. I don't see any real conclusion I can come to....

Thank you in advance

[TroyPercival]

Hi, I am not familiar with your project from last year, but we already know the gene responsible for the resistant for many of the commonly found drug resistant bacteria. For example the MecA gene for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), VAN A gene for Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE), rpoB gene for multiple drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), just to name a few. You can review the Science Buddies success tip to help build your project. http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-f ... tips.shtml

As for the bioinformatics project you mention, it is design for high school senior (advance rating with 3 bars). You can search for other molecular/genetic related projects from Science Buddies here. http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-f ... p?ia=Genom

Michael