Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My project is on the cancer genome project and i need help with making a research question to conduct my research..I am identifying genes that are over-expressed or under-expressed in more than one type of cancer..should i compare different types of cancer?

Hi there,

This is a great project! https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p011.shtml

Yes, it makes sense to compare different types of cancer. It would help if you do some background research about the types of cancer you plan to compare, so you can form a hypothesis about what genes might be over- or under-expressed in the different cancer types.

Good luck, and please post again (in this same thread) if you have more questions.

Heather

thank you! but How would i write my hypothesis?
"I think the type of tissue that would be over/under expressed because..." or maybe like "yes i think bioinformatics can be used to determine cancer tissue"

the reason i ask is because there are soo much different tissues in the body...and i don't have much logic on tissues however is it alright to research about cancer tissue that is over/under expressed using another site that does not use bioinformatics to write my hypothesis?

Hi,

Yes, you should absolutely look for other research to help you develop your hypothesis! You can also start by deciding what type(s) of cancer and what particular tissues are most interesting to you. Then do some research about genes that are implicated in cancer occurring in those tissues. If you know what the genes code for (e.g., a protein involved in cell division), then you can predict whether you think each gene will be over- or under-expressed in cancer cells.

You could also start with a more general hypothesis, and predict whether you think more genes will be over-expressed or more genes will be under-expressed in a certain type of cancer (rather than making predictions for individual genes). And it is okay if your hypothesis ends up being incorrect, as long as you acknowledge that and try to find out why (by looking at the functions of the different genes).

I hope this helps you get started!

Heather

Thank you sooo much Heather! this really helped me for my project!!
I think I will make a research question on whether there are more over-expressed genes than under-expressed genes.
I will research Prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer in the US...

thank you again,
-Kristin

Hi Kristin,

Sounds like you're off to a great start! Please keep me posted on your progress.

Heather