Preventing the Zombie Apocalypse- Making Gene Therapy Safe!

Overview

Students become biomedical engineers and create model viruses for use in therapeutic applications, such as gene therapy. In constructing their models, students carefully plan for side effects and modify a virus that can be used to safely to deliver gene therapy. This process involves taking a "wild type" (or unmodified) virus so it can target a specific area of the body.

Engineering Connection

Genetic engineering is the artificial manipulation, modification, and recombination of DNA or other nucleic acid molecules to modify an organism or population of organisms. Engineers who engage in this field are highly trained experts who use a variety of molecular tools and technologies to rearrange fragments of DNA. Their overall goal is to add or remove an organism's genetic makeup for the better, or to transfer DNA code from one species into the other.

NGSS Alignment

This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:

• HS-ETS1-2. Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.

This lesson focuses on these aspects of NGSS Three Dimensional Learning:

Science & Engineering Practices	Disciplinary Core Ideas	Crosscutting Concepts
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. Design a solution to a complex real-world problem, based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized criteria, and tradeoff considerations.	ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution. Criteria may need to be broken down into simpler ones that can be approached systematically, and decisions about the priority of certain criteria over others (trade-offs) may be needed.