Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'm really interested in health sciences, and wanted to try something with skin.

Melanin - dark spots - stronger against sun radiation - protection for skin cells -

1. testing effect of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), as well as sulfur dioxide (SO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) on melanin production in skin cells (measuring melanin production - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18435617 - spectophotometry)
2. measuring melanin production in young, medium, old cells when exposed to uniform measures of uv radiation

3. measuring melanin production of cells when exposed to natural MSH versus synthetic MSH substitutes - http://www.fasebj.org/content/21/4/976.full

Help would be really appreciated - I need to propose my idea ASAP!

Hello, and thank you for your post.

Which project idea interests you the most? Another thing to consider is what connections you have available. The experiments you are proposing definitely sound very interesting; however, theses types of experiments may need to be done in university-level laboratories that are culturing cells under strict conditions. Let us know what you'd like to do and we can try and help you further.

-Pharma