Project Description Development

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Project Description Development

• Tabbetha Dobbins
• Created for Louisiana Techs NSF-Funded
• Research Experiences in Micro/Nano Engineering
• Program

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Hypothesis Heuristics

1. Specify the nature or direction of the
   relationship(s) of the variables under
   consideration.
2. Indicate how they will be empirically tested.
3. Not value judgments (A is better than B).
4. Not trivial for example, they do not predict a
   relationship that is already well-established.
5. Do not predict a lack of significant differences
   or correlations.

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Handout

• You have been given the handout
• Project Formulation.doc
• Which contains descriptions of four projects that
  an REU student might be given. Consider the
  appropriateness of each description for the
  students level and the timeframe of the REU
  program.

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Problem Description 1

• Alkylating agents represent an abundant class of
  chemical DNA damaging agent in our environment
  and they are toxic, mutagenic, teratogenic and
  carcinogenic. Since we are continuously exposed
  to alkylating agents, and since certain
  alkylating agents are used for cancer
  chemotherapy, it is important to understand
  exactly how cells respond when exposed to these
  agents. We will have our REU student to use
  Affymetrix oligonucleotide DNA chip analysis to
  monitor the transcriptional response of the
  entire S. cerevisiae genome, i.e., all 6,200
  genes in response to a number of different
  alkylating agents.

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Problem Description 1

• Good Aspects
• Includes the big picture
• Not So Good Aspects
• 6200 genes is too many.
• May not be intellectually challenging.

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Project 2

• We will have our REU student studying the
  development of polymers to deliver drugs
  including the development of effective long-term
  delivery systems for insulin, interferon, growth
  hormones and vaccines.

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Project 2

• Too many variables
• Which drug will be examined
• Lacks focus/too vague
• No big picture
• May be too long-term

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Project 3

• Our laboratory uses microfabrication tools to
  study the structure/function relationship of the
  liver. Our REU students will leave the program
  having expertise in microfabrication, liver
  biology, stem cells, biomaterials, polymer
  chemistry, or tissue engineering.

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Project 3

• No hypothesis
• Too many areas to gain expertise in
• Too vague
• Only trains student as a lab tech
• May be too mechanical, not creative

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Project 4

• Our research laboratory focuses on Biomedical
  (orthopedics, cancer, cardiovascular) and
  non-medical (chemistry, physics, materials
  science, engineering) applications of nuclear
  magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging (MRI) and
  spectroscopy (MRS). An REU student working with
  our group will study layer-by-layer self
  assembled polystyrene sulfonate polymer
  distributions within silica aerogels by 1H NMR
  imaging.

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Project 4

• Better than the other 3
• Defines a project
• More specific
• Provides an overview
• Techniques and materials are defined
• Research question is not clear

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Project Description

• We will have our REU student studying the
  development of polymers to deliver drugs
  including the development of effective long-term
  delivery systems for insulin, interferon, growth
  hormones and vaccines.

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Project Description - Leaders

• Our group studies the development of polymers.
  The REU student will coat insulin with PSS and
  PAH with the LbL technique and measure the
  lifetime in PBS as a function of the number of
  layers.

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Project Description - Climbers

• We will have our REU student studying the
  development of a polymer to deliver insulin and
  study the efficacy of insulin delivery over 24
  hours in vitro.

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Skills and Values

• Polymer and drug chemistry
• Interaction of polymer-drug systems
• Time course of drug delivery
• Advantage of in vivo vs in vitro systems
• Lab notebook development
• Equipment and techniques
• How to approach new pieces of equipment
• Lab techniques

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How to package the project

• One tool can be used for multiple purposes
• Being able to operate one tool will make it
  easier to operate others.