Image: National Human Genome Research Institute
Introduction
In your high school biology class and now in this class, you learned about the transmission of traits from parents to offspring. As you know, traits can be recessive, dominant, co-dominant, or sex-linked. Sometimes these traits are beneficial and sometimes they are detrimental as is the case with genetic disorders.
Now, you are in charge of an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic which will open in Martinsville later this year. It is your job to decide what, if any, genetic disorders you are going to screen the fertilized eggs for prior to implantation in the mother’s uterus. The future of countless couples, and their unborn children, are in your hands! Choose wisely!
Task
You will be placed in groups of four. There will be a Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) Expert, a Cystic Fibrosis Expert, a Hemophilia Expert, and a Huntington’s Disease Expert. The groups and your individual jobs will be assigned by your instructor.
Together, you will come up with a Power Point presentation that explains PGD and its pro’s and con’s. Your presentation will also include an explanation for if your in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic will offer PGD for cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, or Huntington’s disease. Your group may screen for all three disorders, some of the disorders or none of the disorders but you must fully explain your stance based on the characteristics of these disorders, common practices, and your personal ethics. While information must be obtained from your sources it must be predominantly presented in your own words. Brief quotes may be used, but quotes must make up less than 10% of your total text.
Procedure
Select your assigned role for individualized, detailed procedures and your .
PGD Expert Cystic Fibrosis Expert Hemophilia Expert Huntington's Expert
Select Group Procedure when you have completed your individualized procedures. This includes your grading rubrics.
Evaluation
Your final grade for the project will be the sum of following scores:
Your individual Webbed Worksheet. I will be looking for accuracy and completeness. (50 points)
The average of your group members’ scores for you based on the Cooperative Rubric. (10 points)
The score for the Power Point based on the Group Presentation Rubric. (40 points)
The entire project will be worth 100 points.
Guidelines for APA citations (to help avoid Plagiarism) Video on Plagiarism and how to avoid it
Conclusion
Congratulations of the opening of your new IVF clinic! Couples have heard of the superior research conducted by your clinic and are lined up to become future patients.
Don’t think that your research is done though. The world of genetics is constantly changing and new diagnostic and gene therapy techniques are being discovered daily. This opens of a whole new world of procedural and ethical dilemma for you to be pondering in order to keep your clinic on the cutting edge.
Thanks to Dorian Albano for use of this project.
