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Biology (and other Life Sciences)

Biology (and other Life Sciences)

The project is written in the style of a HuGEnet e-journal review. It will consist of two parts- an abstraction template and the final paper.Prior to the due date for the abstraction template, students will find a primary research article (a report by the investigator of the original research done by that investigator) from within the last four years on a genetic epidemiology article which provides one or more of the following types of information: Prevalence of a gene variant, gene-disease association, gene-environment interaction, gene-gene interaction, or the evaluation of a genetic test. Students may not choose an article that has already been reviewed on the HuGEnet e-journal. Students may find articles in full text. The article being reviewed must be provided with the abstraction template and the final paper. The abstraction template is posted as a discussion assignment. The article choice will be approved by the instructor upon review of the abstraction template.

Once your article has been approved, proceed with compiling research for the review of the article. The review is an 8-10 page double spaced paper, not counting references. Provide a title page and use APA format. Be sure to use APA style headers. Demonstrate synthesis of the topic by discussing and citing multiple references to recent primary studies, which have been done on this disease or health outcome. Provide a good overview of this problem and its relevance to the field of genetic epidemiology. Topic headers will include Statement of the Problem, Molecular Basis of (Disease Name), Findings, Discussion, and Conclusions.
Statement of the Problem: Begin with a solid introduction to the problem. Describe, in some depth, the disease or health outcome, including information on the public health significance (incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality). Validate with statistics and references.

Molecular Basis of (Disease Name): Include information on genes associated with the health outcome and what is known or not known about the genetic component. Explain mutation nomenclature. Discuss the molecular basis of the disease and gaps in knowledge. Be sure to discuss gene-gene or gene-environment interaction if it is relevant to your topic. Validate with statistics and references. Multiple, recent, primary articles will provide scholarly depth.

Findings: This section is limited to a review of the approved article. Present the findings of the study from the article you selected for the abstraction template. Include the hypothesis (be sure to explain the knowledge gap that this article is attempting to fill), the type of study (e.g. cohort, case control, etc.), the category of HuGENet information from the abstraction template (gene-disease association, etc.), study participant information, a brief description of the genetic component to the study (which should have been fully explained above, and therefore logically connected as needed here), the major results, and the author’s conclusion (paraphrased, not quoted).

Discussion: Reiterate with your own interpretation of the results. Take a stance as to the value of this study, including bias or other problems and limitations. Demonstrate graduate level scholarship through original writing and proper paraphrasing. Do not quote unless necessary to point out something in the original article. Demonstrate synthesis by citing other relevant studies, noting the similarities and differences between the results of this study and other published primary literature. Be sure to draw connections between this study and the studies you discussed previously.

Conclusions: Provide a summary of your own conclusions as to the value of this entire study in terms of knowledge generation. Describe how the information from this study may or may not impact public health, including prevention, diagnosis, and/or treatment of the disease. Identify gaps in knowledge or controversy, where additional research is needed. Be sure to discuss ethical, legal, and social implications of this knowledge as it applies to your topic.

Scholarly writing expectations: Students are expected to utilize APA format for the paper and reference list and use appropriate scholarly tone. The paper should be written as though this were to be published in a HuGENet Review. The paper should be free of typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors. Students are expected to
use mainly primary sources to support the review. Peer-reviewed journal articles should make up the bulk of references. Note that review articles are a secondary source