Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi.

I want to do a project this year relating to the Genetics of mice. General Biology related ideas are also welcome.

Most projects I have seen relate to feeding the mice unhealthy foods/drinks and I would rather not do a project that would impact the health of the mice, as they are my pets once this project is finished.

I am very interested in genetics and pedigrees and would love to do a project relating to that.

Thank you so much!

Hi,

I agree that we don't want to hurt your pet mice, but there are many physical and behavioral tests that you can do that are not harmful. The main question, however, is how did you plan to determine which specific gene sequences your mice have? To do this requires access to a molecular biology lab. Do you have someone in a university research lab that you can work with?

Can you give us a little more specific idea what you meant by 'genetics and pedigrees'? Mice are often used in medical research as stand-ins for humans. Their genes can be manipulated--turned on or off--to see what happens to a certain metabolic or immunological process. There are labs such as Jackson (http://jaxmice.jax.org/) where many different genetic types of mice are bred for biomedical research.

Let us know specifically what you would like to do and we will try to help you formulate a good hypothesis and design the experiments to test it. Be sure to read the Scibudddies guide on working with animals and talk to your teacher about what regulations might apply in your case.

Good luck!

Sybee