Statement of purpose
We’re sophomores from San Marin High School Biotech STEM(Science Technology Engineering Math) class. We were given a project to figure out a biotech solution to a real life problem. We’re focusing on something that can prevent malaria.We found out that malaria is transmitted through female mosquitos. We have learned that the Vitamin B1 can prevent mosquitos from biting. If you take more B1 than needed, it will excrete through urine, skin, and sweat. We’re interested in finding a way to genetically modify cells to increase the production of vitamin B1 in humans to prevent malaria carrying mosquitoes from biting.
We plan on starting small and attempting our solution with white blood cells in petri dishes before we move to attempting entire organisms. From our research, we found out that one of the possible solution might be to use gene therapy to increase the production of vitamin B1. Gene Therapy is an experimental technique that uses genes to treat or prevent disease. Currently, they haven’t done gene therapy on inserting a gene into a patient's cells. We want to inject retroviral vector to white blood cells by using gene therapy so all the white blood cells the body produce more vitamin B1. We found out that males can take 1.2 mg of vitamin B1 per day and 1.1 mg per day for females. Overdose of Vitamin B1 can upset stomach, cause allergic reaction, and imbalance of other B vitamins. This might be one thing we need to cautious about.
Thank you in advance for considering this request. We appreciate any amount of time you are comfortable with.
Sally Jung, Paige Duncan, Beau Thompson, and Ethan Rapp
We plan on starting small and attempting our solution with white blood cells in petri dishes before we move to attempting entire organisms. From our research, we found out that one of the possible solution might be to use gene therapy to increase the production of vitamin B1. Gene Therapy is an experimental technique that uses genes to treat or prevent disease. Currently, they haven’t done gene therapy on inserting a gene into a patient's cells. We want to inject retroviral vector to white blood cells by using gene therapy so all the white blood cells the body produce more vitamin B1. We found out that males can take 1.2 mg of vitamin B1 per day and 1.1 mg per day for females. Overdose of Vitamin B1 can upset stomach, cause allergic reaction, and imbalance of other B vitamins. This might be one thing we need to cautious about.
Thank you in advance for considering this request. We appreciate any amount of time you are comfortable with.
Sally Jung, Paige Duncan, Beau Thompson, and Ethan Rapp
Efficacy Test
Efficacy test: #1
What you're testing: amount of B1 needed to excrete through the body
Materials to be tested: smaller cells and different amounts of of B1
Independent variable: amounts of b1
dependent variable: excretion of the b1
Controlled variable: incubated room temperature
Amount of b1
Consistently same size and shape petri dish
procedure : 1. Obtain container
2. Put cell containing specified amount of b1 into dish
3. Put dish in incubated room
4. Wait determined amount of time
5. Test area around for excreted b1
Efficacy Test: #2
Objective: We are trying to find a way to genetically modify cells to increase the production of Vitamin B1 in humans to prevent malaria carrying mosquitoes from biting.
Materials to be tested: The amount of B1 in our cells that prevent mosquitoes from biting.
Other Needed Materials: B1, parent cells, mosquitoes, and a human.
Independent Variable: Production of B1 in cells
Dependent Variable: The amount of B1 inputted in the cells
Controlled Variables: Mosquitoes to human ratio, size of area conducted in, the use of female mosquitoes, mosquitoes capable of carrying malaria that do not possess it that contain the Anopheles genus.
Procedure:
What you're testing: amount of B1 needed to excrete through the body
Materials to be tested: smaller cells and different amounts of of B1
Independent variable: amounts of b1
dependent variable: excretion of the b1
Controlled variable: incubated room temperature
Amount of b1
Consistently same size and shape petri dish
procedure : 1. Obtain container
2. Put cell containing specified amount of b1 into dish
3. Put dish in incubated room
4. Wait determined amount of time
5. Test area around for excreted b1
Efficacy Test: #2
Objective: We are trying to find a way to genetically modify cells to increase the production of Vitamin B1 in humans to prevent malaria carrying mosquitoes from biting.
Materials to be tested: The amount of B1 in our cells that prevent mosquitoes from biting.
Other Needed Materials: B1, parent cells, mosquitoes, and a human.
Independent Variable: Production of B1 in cells
Dependent Variable: The amount of B1 inputted in the cells
Controlled Variables: Mosquitoes to human ratio, size of area conducted in, the use of female mosquitoes, mosquitoes capable of carrying malaria that do not possess it that contain the Anopheles genus.
Procedure:
- Select a test subject to start the procedure
- Introduce mosquitoes without B1, and various amounts of B1 to patient
- Record that data of how the mosquitoes react to the B1 patient.
- Restart process on another patient
- Compare results
Mentor feedback
Unfortunately, none of the people we contacted for our solution were able to respond which was totally understandable. I wouldn't mind if they responded after the school year because I'm really interested in seeing what they have to say about all of this. The people we contacted are most likely busy which is understandable. .
Reflection
In this project our group was stuck at first figuring out what our group should do, after we decided to do malaria we really took off. Our group wanted to find a way not to cure malaria, but prevent the mosquitoes that have malaria or any mosquito in general from biting. We found that vitamin B1 is offensive to female mosquitoes so we wanted to find the intake needed to keep them away from your body and biting.
Things we did well: I think our group worked really well together and got a lot done very quickly and effectively. Our group finished before most and we did a very good job on ours. Another thing we did well was that our solution was very achievable and easy to do, but we also believe it would be very effective.
Things we could Improve: Our group did not go into much depth of many things that we researched which was a minor problem. Also our group did not know much about malaria in general. The purpose was not to know everything about malaria but it would have helped.
Things we did well: I think our group worked really well together and got a lot done very quickly and effectively. Our group finished before most and we did a very good job on ours. Another thing we did well was that our solution was very achievable and easy to do, but we also believe it would be very effective.
Things we could Improve: Our group did not go into much depth of many things that we researched which was a minor problem. Also our group did not know much about malaria in general. The purpose was not to know everything about malaria but it would have helped.