science fair project idea

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priyankaL
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Joined: Thu Nov 19, 2020 6:26 pm
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science fair project idea

Post by priyankaL »

Hey!
I was thinking of doing the project "BLASTing Flu Viruses" https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure
but with covid-19 instead of the flu. Do you think there is enough information available or is it too early?
Also, for this project, weather I do it with the flu or covid-19, what would be the hypothesis that I am testing? What is the project going to show? I have some other questions for later depending on the answers to these.
Thanks!
brandimiller610
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Re: science fair project idea

Post by brandimiller610 »

Hi priyankaL,

I hope you are having a great day! Thank you for your questions regarding the project "BLASTing Flu Viruses".

The main objective of this project is to use bioinformatics tools to understand the efficacy of flu vaccines. The goal is to pick one year (in the past, so that data is complete) and analyze the strains that were subtyped that year and the strains included in the vaccine. You will compare the sequences of the strains and the vaccines for your selected year using the NCBI BLAST tool; the amount of sequence overlap will suggest the efficacy of the vaccine for that year. Based on the numbers you see on the CDC website (i.e. number of cases or deaths), you will be able to formulate a hypothesis about the vaccine efficacy. The hypothesis will be tested by BLASTing the sequences.

With that being said, I think BLASTing the coronavirus would be a great idea to make this project your own. Instead of vaccine efficacy, I think a good approach for SARS-CoV-2 might be BLASTing the different strains that have spread during the pandemic. Although data is continuing to change and emerge daily, I think this would be good for understanding how the virus mutates. You might even consider doing the project for other SARS-CoV coronaviruses, such as the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak (2002-2004); however, because there is no vaccine, you would again focus only on the strains subtyped during the pandemic.

I hope I have been able to answer your questions! Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions.

--Brandi
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