All living things are made of cells and share the same basic cellular machinery. This simple fact is what underlies the "Biotechnology Revolution," which has given scientists the ability to create new transgenic crops that are resistant to insect pests, plant viruses, or herbicides. They have also been able to amplify tiny amounts of DNA in order to identify disease-causing bacteria or viruses, and even the identity of a criminal suspect. Explore these subjects even further with some of the following topics found in the Project Ideas below:
A Magnetic Primer Designer
How do scientists "copy" DNA? They use a process called the Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR. The key to making this process work is having a primer that will stick to the piece of DNA you want to copy, called a template. In this experiment you will test how the number of matches and mismatches in a primer will affect its ability to stick, or anneal, to the DNA template during PCR.
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Molecular Scissors
Ever used a pair of molecular scissors? Restriction enzymes are molecular scissors that cut DNA into pieces. Find out which enzymes will cut, and where by making a restriction map. Then you can figure out what will happen if you change the sequence of the DNA. Will the same enzymes still cut the new DNA sequence?
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What Makes a DNA Fingerprint Unique?
Do you like solving mysteries? In this experiment, you can find out how a DNA fingerprint can help you figure out whodunit. The answer might just be in the "sequence" of events!
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I Love Ice Cream, But It Doesn't Love Me: Understanding Lactose Intolerance
What do pizza, milk shakes, and ice cream sundaes have in common, besides being delicious and loaded with calories? You might be surprised to learn that these foods, because they contain dairy products, cannot be eaten by the majority of people around the world. Dairy products contain the sugar molecule lactose, and the majority of people on the planet slowly begin to lose the ability to digest lactose after the age of 2. In this human biology and health science fair project, you will investigate the activity of lactase, the enzyme responsible for the ability to digest lactose.
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Enzyme-Catalyzed Reactions -- What Affects Their Rates?
Enzymes speed up chemical reactions by factors of at least a million. Now that's acceleration! This project investigates some of the factors that affect how fast enzymatic reactions occur.
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Forensic Science: Building Your Own Tool for Identifying DNA
When biologists want to separate different pieces of DNA, RNA, or proteins they use a technique called gel electrophoresis. In this science project you'll build a gel electrophoresis chamber and use it to discover how many components are in different colors of food coloring dye.
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Bioluminescence: Investigating Glow-in-the-Dark Dinoflagellates
Imagine seeing waves
glowing a beautiful blue color. The marine dinoflagellate
Pyrocystis lunula is responsible for this magnificent phenomenon.
Pyrocystis lunula is a bioluminescent organism—bioluminescence is the production of light by living organisms. But does this organism always glow, no matter what the conditions, such as how much light there is? In this biotechnology science fair project, you will investigate how altering this dinoflagellate's exposure to light and dark affects its bioluminescence.
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Sizing It Up! How Scientists Separate Proteins
Have you ever had to sort a jumble of objects into piles, based on their type? Maybe laundry, or a big load of dishes, or while organizing the garage or a closet? Scientists have to do something similar when they want to study or isolate just a single type of protein. For example, a botanist might discover an exotic plant that is poisonous when eaten, but that also has great antibiotic properties. To help develop a new antibiotic for human use, he or she would have to separate the different plant proteins, and research which ones are toxic and which ones help fight off infections. One way scientists do this is by sorting the proteins, based on their size, using a technique called
size-exclusion chromatography. In this science fair project, you can try your hand at this biochemical sorting technique and use it to determine the relative size of the green fluorescent protein (GFP).
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Enzymes
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Many proteins act as catalysts which speed up or regulate a biochemical reaction. The kinetics of an enzyme can be investigated by measuring the reactants and products of the reaction over time....
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Solubility of Proteins
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Some proteins are soluble in aqueous solutions and some are not. Insoluble proteins can be a problem because the proteins can form large aggregates in solution which are difficult to purify,...
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Index of Biotechnology Project Ideas |
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