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Essay Instructions: I would like for the paper to explore the mechanisms and techniques of the Knockout Mice experiments: how they are performed and how they affect the mice at the cellular level in terms of cell structure and/or function. I also would like one or two examples described of experiments in which Knockout Mice have been used in the study of diabetes. The paper should focus mainly on the cell biology rather than genetics or the biology of the entire organism, though necessary references to those may obviously be made.

Essay Instructions: This paper must have an abstract. I have also included the Bibliography which must be used and cited in this paper. The Bibliography is below. Please let me know if you have any questions.



• Bellomo, Michael. The Stem Cell Divide: The Facts, the Fiction, and the Fear Driving the Greatest Scientific, Political, and Religious Debate of Our Time. New York: AMACOM, 2006.
• Bevington, Linda K., Ray G. Bohlin, Gary P. Stewart, John F. Kilner, and C. Christopher Hook. Basic Questions on Genetics, Stem Cell Research and Cloning: Are These Technologies Okay to Use? Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2002.
• Carrier, Ewa, and Gracy Ledingham. 100 Questions & Answers about Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplantation. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2004.
• Cohen, Cynthia B. Renewing the Stuff of Life: Stem Cells, Ethics, and Public Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
• DeGette, Diana. Sex, Science, and Stem Cells: Inside the Right Wing Assault on Reason. Guilford, CT: Lyons, 2008.
• Fox, Cynthia. Cell of Cells: The Global Race to Capture and Control the Stem Cell. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
• Friedman, Lauri S., and Hal Marcovitz. Is Stem Cell Research Necessary? Referencepoint Press, 2009.
• Green, Ronald M. The Human Embryo Research Debates: Bioethics in the Vortex of Controversy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Gruen, Lori, Laura Grabel, and Peter Singer, eds. Stem Cell Research: The Ethical Issues. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007.
• Herold, Eve, and George Daley. Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontlines. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
• Holland, Suzanne, Karen Lebacqz, and Laurie Zoloth, eds. The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
• Humber, James M., and Robert F. Almeder. Stem Cell Research. Totowa, NJ: Humana, 2004.
• Juengst, Eric, and Michael Fossel. “The Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cells: Now and Forever, Cells Without End.” JAMA 284 (2000): 3180-3184.
• Kass, Leon R. Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics. San Francisco: Encounter, 2002.
• Korobkin, Russell, and Stephen R. Munzer. Stem Cell Century: Law and Policy for a Breakthrough Technology. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
• Lanza, Robert, Roger Pedersen, Douglas Melton, John Gaerhart, E. Donnall Thomas, James A. Thomson, and Brigid Hogan, eds. Essentials of Stem Cell Biology. Burlington, MA: Academic, 2005.
• Marzilli, Alan. Stem Cell Research and Cloning. New York: Chelsea House, 2007.
• Monroe, Kristen Renwick, Ronald Miller, and Jerome Tobis, eds. Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
• Mulkay, Michael. The Embryo Research Debate: Science and the Politics of Reproduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Report and Recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Vol. 1 of Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research. Rockville, MD: NBAC, 1999. http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/nbac/stemcell.pdf (Accessed June 24, 2010).
• __________. Commissioned Papers. Vol. 2 of Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research. Rockville, MD: NBAC, 2000. http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/nbac/stemcell2.pdf (Accessed June 24, 2010).
• __________. Religious Perspectives. Vol. 3 of Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research. Rockville, MD: NBAC, 2000. http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/nbac/stemcell3.pdf (Accessed June 24, 2010).
• Østnor, Lars, ed. Stem Cells, Human Embryos and Ethics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. New York: Springer, 2008.
• Panno, Joseph. Stem Cell Research: Medical Applications and Ethical Controversy. New York: Checkmark, 2006.
• Peters, Ted. Sacred Cells? Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research. Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.
• Peters, Ted. The Stem Cell Debate. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007.
• Potten, Christopher S., Robert B. Clarke, James Wilson, and Andrew G. Renehen, eds. Tissue Stem Cells. New York: Informa Healthcare, 2006.
• Prentice, David A. Stem Cells and Cloning. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings, 2008.
• The President's Council on Bioethics.Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council on Bioethics. New York: Public Affairs, 2002. http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pdbe/reports/cloningreport/pcbe_cloning_... (accessedJune 24, 2010).
• Robertson, John A. “Science and Society: Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Ethical and Legal Issues.” Nature Reviews Genetics 2 (2002): 74-78.
• Ruse, Michael, and Christopher A. Pynes, eds. The Stem Cell Controversy: Debating the Issues. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2003.
• Shostak, Stanley. Becoming Immortal: Combining Cloning and Stem-cell Therapy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.
• Snow, Nancy E., ed. Stem Cell Research: New Frontiers in Science and Ethics. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003.
• Waters, Brent, and Ronald Cole-Turner, eds. God and the Embryo: Religious Voices on Stem Cells and Cloning. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003.
• Wertz, Dorothy C. “Embryo and Stem Cell Research in the USA: A Political History.” Trends in Molecular Medicine 8 (2002): 143-146.
Additional Key Reports on Stem Cell Research
• Chapman, Audrey R., Mark S. Frankel, and Michele S. Garfinkel. “Stem Cell Research and Applications: Monitoring the Frontiers of Biomedical Research.” AAAS / ICS, November 1999. http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/projects/stem/report.pdf (Accessed June 24, 2010).?
• Committee on the Biological and Biomedical Applications of Stem Cell Research, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council, Board on Neuroscience and Behavioral Health, Institute of Medicine. Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine. Washington, DC: National Academies, 2002. Available online at www.nap.edu/books/7/html/ (Accessed June 24, 2010).?
National Academies. Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) and Board on Life Sciences (BLS). Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning. Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy; National Academy of Sciences; National Academy of Engineering; Institute of Medicine. Washington, DC: National Academy, 2002. Available online at http://www.nap.edu/books/4/html/ (Accessed June 24, 2010).

Essay Instructions: The plan of inquiry I have designed to investigate a phenomenon in my field is the following:

The Immunotoxic Effect of a mixture of Atrazine and Isoxaflutole
Emily D. Heston¹, Kathleen Brundage²; ¹Mountain State University, ²Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cell Biology, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University; ¹,²The West Virginia IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence.

Herbicides are used throughout the world to control the growth of weeds. Runoff from the crops as well as waste water from manufacturing facilities can contaminate the ground water. Atrazine is one of the most heavily used herbicides in U.S. agriculture and is used to control broadleaf and grassy weeds. It has been demonstrated to alter cell-mediated immune functions and decrease disease resistance. The EPA has set enforceable maximum contaminant levels on herbicides such as atrazine to insure safe drinking water. However, in many cases the level of atrazine and its metabolites exceed these levels. To reduce the amount of atrazine applied annually to crops, isoxaflutole is being mixed with atrazine. Isoxaflutole is a relatively new herbicide with no published studies on how it affects the immune system. During an immune response T cells augment antibody production by B cells and cytotoxic T cell killing. Due to the T cells important role in the immune response, alterations in their normal function will adversely affect the immune systems ability to respond to foreign pathogens. Our hypothesis is that when applied as a mixture, atrazine and isoxaflutole alter Interleukin-2 (IL2) secretion by Jurkats differently than when applied individually. In this experiment we stimulated Jurkat cells in the presence of 5-200 µM doses of atrazine, isoxaflutole, or a 1:1 mixture of both. The supernatants were harvested 24 hours later and IL2 levels were analyzed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We also measured intracellular IL2 levels by flow cytometry. Our data demonstrates that isoxaflutole (5–200 µM) alone does not inhibit IL2 production to the same degree as atrazine. A high dose of atrazine (50–200 µM) alone inhibits IL2 production by more than 65%. Low doses of atrazine (5-25 µM) alone had no effect on IL2 production. The 50:50 mixture inhibited IL-2 production to approximately the same level as 100 µM atrazine alone. The 100:100 mixture inhibited IL2 production to approximately the same level as 200 µM atrazine alone. Together this data indicates that the addition of isoxaflutole to atrazine results in an effect on IL2 production that is similar to twice as much atrazine. This research was supported in part by grant P20 RR16477 from the National Center for Research Resources awarded to the West Virginia IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence.

Explaining this plan of inquiry is required in the paper as well as answering the following questions:

Does or does not the plan challenge the paradigm of prevailing belief in that field? Why or why not?
How are the functions of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation present in the plan?
What further explanations will the results suggest?

Essay Instructions: Assignment 2: Significance of Major Discoveries in Modern Biology


Discoveries in DNA, cell biology, evolution, biotechnology have been among the major achievements in biology over the past 200 years with accelerated discoveries and insights over the last 50 years. Consider the progress we have made in these areas of human knowledge. Present at least three of the discoveries you find to be most important and describe their significance to society, health, and the culture of modern life.

Assignment 2 Grading Criteria

Quality of initial posting.

Connections and higher order thinking.

Reference to supporting readings.

Language and Grammar.

Please make sure this is in APA format with References. Thank you.