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Posted January 11th, 2009 by admin

A Day in the Life of a Protein

Author: Laura Stiles
Level: High School
Content Area: Biology

Resources

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Website Resources

These resources can be used by the instructor to get additional information about sickle cell anemia.  Students can use the first few as the information is presented at a level that they can handle.

  • www.scinfo.org - The Sickle Cell Information Center – information for students, educators, patients, etc; contains links to powerpoint presentations, FAQ, and more
  • TeensHealth - TeensHealth, Sickle Cell Anemia
  • http://rad.usuhs.mil/sickle/index.html - A powerpoint presentation from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology; many slides of images showing the effects of sickle cell on various organs
  • US Department of Energy Human Genome Project Information Website; details about the disorder, timeline for the discovery/identification of the disorder and links to other sites.
  • National Center for Biotechnology Information; site has a diagram showing the difference between the RBC with normal and sickle hemoglobin
  • National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; basic information about the disease and a diagram showing both normal and sickled RBCs in the blood vessels
  • http://sickle.bwh.harvard.edu/scd_background.html - How Does Sickle Cell Cause Disease?; great site showing the various aspects of the hemoglobin and its effects on RBCs.  Also includes an image showing the effects of oxygen on hemoglobin. 
  • http://health.allrefer.com/health/sickle-cell-test-info.html  - AllRefer.com Medical Tests and Exams; images of normal and sickled RBCs, details about the sickledex test.

Video Resources

A great DVD to use is “DNA:  the secret of life”.  An overview of the program can be found at

http://www.moreheadplanetarium.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&filename=dna_overview_2.html

and purchasing information at

http://www.carolina.com/biotech/DNA_secret.asp

I use the DVD to review DNA structure and replication as well as protein synthesis.  The graphics for transcription and translation are phenomenal.  There is a brief (5-10 min) application of the information related to sickle cell anemia.  A teenage girl is interviewed and she explains the effect of the disease on her life.