Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,

I am doing some research based on cancer genetics. Is it ok to analyze the data available @ various websites (like oncomine.org, National Cancer Institute - SAGE etc) in a nove way and come up with conclusion and present it in science fair like SFBASF? Or do we "must" work in the lab at some research institute to conclude something?

TIA

Hi,
You are by no means obligated to work in a laboratory in order to enter science fairs like the one you hope to enter. That being said, many students do work in labs, though this does not prevent you from winning with a "home-made" project (I personally have seen many projects win without any laboratory involvement). After going to ISEF a couple years ago, I think that in order to do extremely well at your regional fair and beyond, you will need to offer more substantial analysis. Usually, these online tools can be extremely helpful in helping you to verify how aligned certain sequences are, and typically do not make up the data section for the entire project. For more info, you can check out another thread in which I posted about using these online tools -

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... lit=+blast

Hope this helps, and best of luck!