Below is a link to my annotated bibliography for my final project, detailing what each source contains and how I used them in my experiment:
How did my project come about?
The development of my question and its eventual evolution into my final project is fairly interesting, at least to me. I have a friend back home who owns an axolotl, and mentioned that they can regrow limbs around the time that we were asked to develop a question. I decided to search around about how this regeneration occurs, and I came across an article on how there were 10 commonly regulated miRNAs between 3 species capable of regeneration. From there, I came up with my question on if these miRNAs could help healing in a mammalian system. After creating my project outline, I realized that treating wounds with 10 different miRNA treatments would prove to be extremely complicated, especially for this project. I read further, and found that miR-21 was the most upregulated of the 5 commonly upregulated miRNA, and decided to focus in on in. After spending many hours in the library and searching for sources, I developed my question into an experiment, leading me to where I am now!
Completed Final Project
It’s done! This is the final copy of my final project. It was such an adventure to think up, research, and write this, and I am very pleased with the result.
Final Project Draft
The draft of my final project, due 10 Nov. After I received feedback on my outline, I decided to remove a lot of the treatment groups, and instead chose to focus on one specific miRNA. I was very proud of how far that I’d come since the question, and even since the outline!
Final Project Outline
The outline of my final project, due 25 October. It’s interesting to follow the development from question to outline, and how I added more!
Final Project Potential Question
Can the 10 miRNAs that are common to and present in regeneration sites in species that are capable of limb regeneration (zebrafish, axolotls…) aid in healing of human cutaneous wounds such as lacerations and incisions?
If I Were a Developmental Biologist
1. If I were a researcher in developmental genetics/genomics, two thing that I would investigate would be:
1) What goes wrong in development of some blood cells that can lead to the Philadelphia chromosome forming during cell replication, and can this be prevented?
2) Could miRNA from species capable of regeneration (axolotl, zebrafish) that seem to control gene expression in the regeneration process be useful in wound healing/tissue regeneration in humans?
2. The potential impact of the second investigation would be paramount if the miRNA could in fact assist in wound healing, or human regeneration. Axolotls can infinitely regrow limbs, and it’s been found that there are 10 microRNAs that they have in common with with other species capable of regeneration that are all active in the same ways during limb/fin regeneration. Humans could find a way to heal injuries more naturally and fully than before if these miRNA, or their human equivalents could be found and activated, and it would open up a whole new field in gene therapy research involving regeneration.
For Assignments:
I wanted to include this because it shows how far I’ve come throughout this course, when taken in context with my final project. It shows how I was able to take something I had a casual interest in, and turn it into a complete final project, further developing it as I went. From this assignment, I learned what type of questions are being asked in developmental biology, and by looking back at it now I really know how far I have come throughout this semester.