HELP ON SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT "Creating a Kidney: How Stem Cells Might Be Used to Bioengineer a Vital Organ"

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emily78
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HELP ON SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT "Creating a Kidney: How Stem Cells Might Be Used to Bioengineer a Vital Organ"

Post by emily78 »

To whom it may concern, I'm having trouble determining whether my science fair project requires a hypothesis or a problem statement. Mainly because I can't decipher if it is a computer science project or a life science project. It has many variables to it, so it is hard to determine whether I should write a hypothesis because a hypothesis requires me to have an idea of the outcome, but the whole point of the project is to figure out which combination of soluble factors works best at the end. If someone could help me with this I would really appreciate it.

Sincerely, Emily
brandimiller610
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Re: HELP ON SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT "Creating a Kidney: How Stem Cells Might Be Used to Bioengineer a Vital Organ"

Post by brandimiller610 »

Hi Emily,

Thank you for your question -- I am happy to help!

For any kind of science fair project, whether it is a bioinformatics project (like this one) or involves performing experiments at the bench top, it is important formulate a hypothesis on what you expect. To formulate a strong hypothesis, I suggest reading some papers about regenerative medicine, focusing on kidney transplantation and stem cell kidney transplantation. Stem cell therapy is a very "hot" topic now in regenerative medicine, so I believe there are many papers out there that will provide some insight. Since kidney transplantation is the most common organ transplantation, I do not think finding papers will be much of an issue. From there, you can hypothesize which environment of soluble factors you think would work best for kidney transplantation. You can find papers on PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) or Google Scholar. Having a hypothesis before starting your experiment/bioinformatics analysis gives a framework for your analysis and allows conclusions to be drawn at the end.

I hope I have been of help as you begin your science fair project! Please feel free to reply to this forum if you need clarification on something or have any more questions/concerns!

--Brandi :)
emily78
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2021 10:42 am
Occupation: Student

Re: HELP ON SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT "Creating a Kidney: How Stem Cells Might Be Used to Bioengineer a Vital Organ"

Post by emily78 »

Thank you so much for your assistance! I’ll be sure use your advice.

Gratefully, Emily
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