Assignment title: Information
Design two circulars/flyers focused on the gene, disease
or organism you have selected.
a)The first flyer is to be designed as an announcement
and educational tool for your new molecular assay.
These should be focused on the needs of the clinical
staff (read physician). Algorithms showing appropriate
clinical utility would be helpful as well as discussion
of the clinical relevance of the test. Convince the
clinical world they should order your molecular test
over previous testing modalities or demonstrate how it
adds that supportive piece to clinical picture. One
8.5" x 11" sheet of paper used any way you want, it can
be a memo, a tri-fold brochure, printed on one side or
both. This is to be used as a reference educational
tool.
(b)The second flyer is for the individual who is being
tested. This is to inform them of what you are
testing, why your testing it and what the
interpretation means. Remember, these are lay people
you are educating and many fear and distrust science.
This is only a 4" x 6" index card size.
As you can imagine there is no right or wrong answer here, these
flyers will be judged on completeness and consistency with the
original premise.
Select a clinical problem with a genetic component (i.e. Insulin
Dependent Diabetes Mellitus Type I and HLA-DQ) in your area of
interest. You can pick an existing paradigm or be creative and
speculative. Just pick a gene or loci that has clinical impact
for either diagnostic or prognostic reasons.
Here are web sites that might help:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ or http://gdbwww.gdb.org/gdb/
You need to prepare a report on this focal problem that
includes the following:
1) Clinical background. The clinical impact in terms of
disease processes, current conventional laboratory
methodologies used and the need for genetic testing (i.e.
what is the appropriate use of the test in the clinical
setting). Two to three paragraphs should be
sufficient.
2) Genetic code. A print out of the nucleic acid sequence
including polymorphic sites. Whatever it takes. It is
assumed that if the region of interest is only 300bp you
don't provide 64000bp, but if it takes 3400bp to support
your test, go for it. Annotate with where primers,
enzyme cutting sites, probes, etc. are located on the
sequence.
3) Generate two testing protocols. Include all reagents,
the concentrations they are used at and their source.
Real reagents here, no imaginary enzymes. Include
controls and a diagram of expected results, be inclusive
of all possible phenotypes stated in 2. Two pages
maximum. One of the protocols can be a published,