Neurotoxicology

[Jessisconfused]

I don't know exactly what my project is going to be yet, but I know I want to do a project with neurotoxicology as my topic. My teacher said if I'm able to do it, I'd have to me mentored by a university and fill out a lot of forms. I'm not really sure what kind of project I should do. I live within 2 hours of the CDC, so I don't think the mentoring will be a problem. I just don't have a specific idea of what I want to do.

[Trader]

Hi Jessisconfused! (Do you mind if I call you Jess?)

First of all, welcome to Science Buddies "Ask an Expert" forum!

Regarding your interest in neurotoxicology, congratulations already in making one huge step in determining the field you want to base your science fair research on! Unlike many projects in the biology field neurotoxicology is one that will most likely involved an advanced research institution, most likely one in a university lab or as you've mentioned, a CDC lab. I agree that mentoring does not seem to be a problem.

Given the case that there are various institutions that you can potentially go to, usually the workers in those institutions (from professors in neurotoxicology in a university or CDC) are very approachable and are very happy to help high school students but what is most important is that you make sure you refine your topic down more (which seems to be your question).

When I narrowed down my science fair ideas to a certain field, the very first thing I did was background research which is crucial. What do you know so far about neurotoxicology and its current place in life & sciences research today? I've researched some sites where you can check out peer reviewed articles (a very good source for both brainstorming and basing your research on) on neurotoxicology.

Once you know more of it, you'll know what's the current issues in the field, and that means that you'll be better equipped to know exactly what in neurotoxicology you may be most interested in. Hence, its pretty much

1) Background knowledge (without a direction)
2) Hopefully find an interesting article or two that refines your topic enough
3) A general research question (such as neurotoxicology and autism)
4) THEN you may want to start contacting CDC employees.

That's the sequence that I have used many times as when I contact professors, they almost always ask "what is your research question?" -- specifics really help.

Here are the sites:

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journa ... escription

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/137/12/2809 (an interesting article regarding metals and neurotoxicology, just in case you really don't mind checking out specific directions)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08920362 > various research papers

[Jessisconfused]

Thanks very much for the input and the web links. I actually bought a book a while ago designed to help researches in field studies called The Pharmacology of Endogenous Neurotoxins. It talks a lot about Parkinson's disease that is not genetically caused. I'm still not quite sure what I want to do though.

[Trader]

Not knowing what to do is never a problem . After all, for my science project I spent about 4 months before finally settling on a project. By then, I really had only 2 months left to experiment before the fair! What i learned from that experience was that it was really important to get all the important background information first -- by covering bigger ground, you can probably narrow down to what you want to do with greater efficiency.

Now Parkinson's disease makes an interesting experiment and with the CDC nearby it'll be very possible that you can make this into a medical study. It's good that you've already started reading! Remember, knowledge = more options you are aware of to base your project on!

You may know already that Parkinson's disease can be caused by genetic mutations, toxins (which i assume you're interested in), as well as a serious head-trauma (damaging the motor cortex).

Here are some articles regarding how Parkinson's disease are caused by toxins:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9613715
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/ ... kinson.pdf
http://www.mtbeurope.info/news/2007/707016.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16787846

Some of these may be a bit too in-depth, and reading them WILL be frustrating. However, I usually read most of these articles for finding out what research has been done/is currently being done, as well as learning more about the topic and perhaps learning about more common applications of research in the area.

Be sure not to feel restricted by going doing anything in Parkinson's disease after reading these -- remember, these are just to feel out everything! The best science projects are ones based on subjects you truly like

If you have access to pub

[Jessisconfused]

Thanks very much for more great links. I found out I can't do any kind of testing with human tissue even if I fill out a bunch of forms... It's the only area of science I'm even remotely interested in too...

[Trader]

^ That is interesting (who provided you with the information that there can be no testing with human tissue?)...

For the ISEF (the big BIG science fair around the world) for example:

http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/d ... ssue10.pdf

It seems like a few signatures and approvals as well as a research institution backing and you're all set! Perhaps the CDC can help you here!

Neurotoxicology may involve more than just human tissue however; however that never stopped many of the ISEF Finalists who made it to the big thing! You can see some of the neurology-related science experiments here: http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/Finaldir.pdf

There's always a way around

[Jessisconfused]

My teacher. We're just doing the school science fair and because I'm in honors chemistry I'm required to participate for a grade. I want to do college-level experiments and my teacher is doing the best she can to help, but there isn't much leeway.

[Trader]

So it seems to me that the rules of the school fair state that there can be no use of human-tissue? Unfortunately it seems like there is not much you can do about there.

However that doesn't mean that you can't use what you may learn from a "pre-experiment" in a regional or even international level science fair (if you're interested). By no means stop at the school fair! In that way perhaps you can get around it

[Jessisconfused]

Thanks so much!
I decided to test corrosion on several different metals and compare them to data from other sources on how the body metabolizes them:) Getting around things is waaay to much fun.

[Trader]

Sounds good as well and it seems like you're very interested in it as well.

That's the most important thing with a science project -- doing something you like

Can't wait to see you get started!