Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
I am currently looking for project ideas and I thought I would start by reading over articles published about recent research to see if there was anything interesting. I found some research about a protein found in the saliva of a tick which stops blood clotting. The articles I read on it were very interesting and I am very interested in the topic and its applications. Some of the articles I looked at mentioned other anti clotting medications and how they work in comparison to the protein (TDX-1). I am having trouble finding a way to apply this information into a plausible experiment which could be performed by a high school student. Although I'm not sure how I could do this, would comparing the efficiency of the drugs and tick spit to stop a blood clot work? Are there any other ways to use this research to create an original investigation?

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

I think your topic on tick TDX-1 is very interesting, and I think you did a very smart thing by reading over recently published articles to look for project ideas! However, I think that when you’re choosing your project ideas, some important things to consider are the resources available to you and the feasibility of the experiments you propose based on the resources available to you. For example, how are you going to obtain these different anti-clotting medications? Are some of them over-the-counter, or do they require prescription? Furthermore, how are you going to obtain tick spit or even purified TDX-1 protein? Is there a lab on a college campus within the vicinity of where you live that actually works on ticks? If there is, great! You can try contacting the personnel of the lab and see whether they would be willing to help you out on your experiments and what kind of qualifications you need in order to work with ticks (or even just the tick spit). They can even give you suggestions on the types of experimental models you can use to test the types of questions you want to test. Otherwise, this will be a very difficult project to do on your own with limited resources (I definitely do not recommend going out into the fields and catching the ticks yourself!).

When choosing a project to work on, I feel like interest for the topic is a really important factor, but you also have to consider whether the questions you want to test are feasible considering the resources and facilities available to you. Keep on reading and searching—you will eventually find something that is both intriguing and feasible! If you have certain areas in which you’re really interested and need more advice on how to make that a doable science project, feel free to contact us again!

Best of luck,

Connie