A. Research Topic

1. You are free to select any topic related to genetics with the caveat that your topic must be approved by the instructor if it is not in the approved list below.

B. Required Paper Format
1. Two pages of double-spaced text (the body of the paper).
2. An additional literature cited page.
3. submit as Word document or PDF file

C. Paper Content
1. Literature review of the topic including at least one primary research article. The content of the paper will vary with the topic but should include:
a. The genetic basis: what gene or genes are involved
b. Environmental factors: external factors that make the underlying genetics more difficult to understand or manipulate
c. A description of the scientific methods that are used to address the problem
d. A discussion of social, political, and/or ethical factors that enhance or diminish our ability to deal with the genetic problem.

D. Literature Quality
1. You must cite at least three separate sources.
a. The course textbook will not count as one of these works (although you may cite it as an additional work).
b. Literature Quality will be assessed.
c. 1 of the 3 sources must be primary literature (i.e. research studies, or review articles), meaning peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. Other quality sources include information for public consumption on websites of government health organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the World Health Organization and from professional organizations such as the American Medical Association and the Genetics Society of America. Marginal literature includes popular news magazines such as Time and Newsweek and newspapers.
Unacceptable Literature = websites of individuals whose qualifications cannot be verified.
2. You must provide in-text citations following each bit of information that is not common knowledge.
3. A full reference for each work receiving in-text citation must be provided in a Literature Cited section at the end of the paper.

E. Approved Research Topics
Personalized Genomics/Precision Medicine
Bioinformatics
Computational biology
Behavioral Genetics
Alcoholism/Addiction
Genetics of Athletic Ability
Autism
Bipolar Disorder
Depression
Homosexuality
Intelligence
Schizophrenia Genetic Technologies
Fetal Diagnosis of Genetic Disorders
Genetically-Modified Foods
Genetic Screening/Testing for Disease
Gene Therapy (Genetic modification of humans to treat/cure disease)
CRISPR/Cas9
Pharmacogenetics (Drug production involving gene technology)
Genetics of Cancer
Breast Cancer
Prostate Cancer
Other Cancer
Cancer immunotherapy
Genetics of Neurological/Neuromuscular Disorders
ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease)
Alzheimer’s Disease
Huntington’s Disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Parkinson’s Disease
Spastic Paraplegia
Other Neurological Disorder
Human Population Genetics
Genetic Databases
Genetics of Race
Patterns of Human Evolution
Forensic DNA Analysis
Mammalian/Human Cloning
Stem Cell Research

Click on any of the below links to search for and find literature about genetics, biology and medicine:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcgenet/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmedgenet/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcbiol/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.plosone.org/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.plos.org/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.livescience.com/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/