Amino acids + mice + Miller and Urey's expmnt.

[chemistrylover11]

Okay, so we all know that proteins make up muscle and that the building blocks of proteins are amino acids. Miller and Urey, some time way back, made an experiment in which they created amino acids. What would happen if the product of this exact experiment is introduced inside mice? Will it build muscle? Will it destroy muscle? Something or nothing?

[chemistrylover11]

According to Wikipedia, "Taurine is essential for cardiovascular function, and development and function of skeletal muscle, the retina and the central nervous system". So, what if I, somehow, obtain a mouse with damaged organs or tissues in any of those components and introduce Taurine from Miller and Urey's experiment?

[deleted-71957]

chemistrylover11,

There has been numerous pieces of literature that have studied in vivo taurine injection to study protein synthesis and lipid metabolism within chickens and mice. In addition, they have studied how muscle function is effected by the additional presence of taurine.

Here is a link to PubMed, and the article is free to download as a pdf. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14734644 It appears that taurine transport and cardiovascular and muscle function is a large area of research. Specifically this study found that the "maintenance of skeletal muscle function and total exercise capacity, while cardiac muscle apparently can compensate for the loss of taurine". There are additional links to related articles that are very interesting how taurine effects mitochondrial functioning and cell biology.

I believe that your project can be very successful, but first you should spend a good amount of time completing a literature review. PubMed offers a comprehensive government database of articles that may be a lot of help. Your school, a local library, or community college may grant you additional access to journal article databases. After a thorough reading, your hypothesis and plan of action will be formed.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... plan.shtml

After you are even more knowledgeable in the field, I would suggest finding a mentor from a local research institution. A mentor would provide you with the complicated equipment and a laboratory to complete your research. In addition, you will need to complete animal care and safety IAUPC protocol which will need to be approved through a research institution. A project of this nature needs to be completed within a laboratory setting. Science Buddies Project guide has a great amount of information that explains how you can be successful in finding a mentor. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tors.shtml

Personally, it is a lot of work to find a mentor and laboratory access but it definitely can be done. Get your email account and your language skills warmed up! I am sure that you can find a few researchers in your state that are doing similar research.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions pertaining to background research, finding a mentor, and competing in science fairs!

Thank you,
Travis Sigafoos

[chemistrylover11]

oh my goodness!!! This is so awesome; I'm so glad there is actually light at the end of the tunnel for this experiment (I thought there wouldn't)!! Thank you sooooooo much, this is very, no, tremendously helpful!!!!

[deleted-71957]

chemistrylover11,

You're welcome! I am glad that the information I provided you was helpful. Have fun doing your background research and I suggest that you start trying to find a mentor simultaneously. It unfortunately doesn't happen over night.

Let us know if you have any additional questions at any point in the process.

-Travis Sigafoos