Difficult Biology Questions - Please Help!

<p>These are a series of challenge questions proposed by my teacher. I'm having a lot of trouble with them, which isn't a good sign considering that I have a test on this material on Tuesday. I'd really appreciate it if people can help me understand the answers to these questions to help me better understand DNA tech/genetics in general. Thanks!</p>

<p>1) You are a researcher interested in using gene replacement therapy to treat Sickle Cell Disease in W. Africa.<br>
a) How would you go about doing it?
b) Why would it be a bad idea to try and remove the HgS gene? (more than one reason)
c) What are the risks that your plan has?</p>

<p>2) You work for a company that does genetic counseling and screening. Your company can remove a single cell from an 8 cell stage embryo, and within 24 hours run a single test to screen for 100 known abnormal alleles. How would you explain the following to a couple interested in using your services? (they already know how in vitro fertilization works, so start with the embryo)
a) Why doesn’t removing part of the embryo cause a birth defect?<br>
b) How can you get enough DNA from one cell to be confident in the results?
c) How can you test for so many genes at the same time?</p>

<p>3) In 1918 a particularly virulent strain of influenza (an RNA virus) wiped out millions
of health humans in the prime of their lives. Epidemiologists fear that such a super bug could revisit us in the future. And thus there was quest to find samples of the virus, and make a vaccine against it.<br>
a) Explain why the fears of a recurrence are real.
b) Explain how they could find, isolate and make a vaccine for the 1918 strain.
c) Explain how the vaccine can help produce a humoral immunity.</p>

<p>4) Prion Diseases like “Mad Cow” (BSE) and “Scrapie” are a threat to human food supplies. Not only do the prions harm the livestock, but in some cases the prions can cause human disease like variant CJD. Genetic engineers are working to resolve this problem by genetically modifying a cow and cloning it to produce cattle that can be resistant to BSE. Explain<br>
a) how this can be done
and
b) why it should work: include how to modify the cow and how to make clones.</p>

<p>5) In a war-torn country infants and children are often separated from their families.
In the recovery period after the war, major efforts are put into matching the children with their relatives. Assuming birth records are not available how could you match the children to their relatives? *Be careful about how you would select the genes to search for.</p>

<p>6) You are a consultant hired by a Biotech company that wants to use E. coli to produce Human Growth Hormone (HGH). The lab has all of the necessary equipment and the gene sequence is available on the national database. Explain to the CEO, who only had one college prep biology class in high school, what his lab will need to do in order to produce this protein. (Do not worry about explaining how to extract and refine the HGH your partner will have that job.)</p>

<p>this isn't homework help btw...these are just interesting questions that if discussed, lead to better understand of the material...</p>