Notes

What topics have you chosen for your research and why?
What do you know now about the topic
What do you want to find out?
Are you aware of any controversies regarding this topic? If so, what are they, and what is your current stand
on the issue?
Have you noticed any areas of disagreement among your sources?
Did anything surprise you as you gathered information?
What has been the most interesting aspect of the material you’ve gathered so far?
After reviewing your data or sources, what do you see as the latest problems in the field of your topic?
What do you think are the important facts of the matter?
What new insight can you contribute?
Considering all of the previous questions, how would you sum up your current attitude toward your topic in
a sentence or two?
If you decide to use the answer to the previous question as a working thesis for your paper, what
information will you have to give your readers to convince them that your stand is a valid one? What
questions of theirs will you have to answer? (The answers to these questions will suggest major points for
your outline.)
What one real question will your paper answer?
What is your current answer to this question?
What information do you have to support this?
What information do you still need to gather?
After:
Are the introduction, thesis, and conclusion clear and logical? Does the conclusion relate to the
introduction?
Are ideas and paragraphs smoothly and sufficiently developed, or would more data or examples help?
Do any terms or concepts need explanation to a lay reader?
Do any ideas or references seem irrelevant?
Does the paper make claims for which there is insufficient evidence?
Does any evidence seem unsound?
Are potential counterarguments explored and supported without bias?
Are differing points of view sufficiently acknowledged, explained, and integrated?
Is bias present in words themselves, e.g. “genetically modified foods”?
Does the bibliography contain a sufficient number and range of sources?
Are all listed sources used in the paper?
Do citations appear correct? Are they formatted in a consistent manner? Would you be able to locate the
source from the given information?
Late 1860s- The discovery of DNA by Friedrich Miescher. (1)
Late 1880s- Phoebus Levene did extensive research about the DNA molecules. (1)
1920s- Erwin Chargaff discovered the primary chemical components of DNA and the way that they attach one another. (1)
1953- James Watson and Francis Crick found the three-dimensional double helix structure of DNA (2)
1970s- Frederick Sanger, as well as the contributions from many other scientists and organizations, were able to independently invent a method of genome sequencing (2) This was not only able to read DNA, but increase the affectivity and decrease the cost and time of genome sequencing. (1)
Around 1975- The Sanger Method, which is also known as the Chain Termination Method, evolved into the method of “shotgun” sequencing (described in “Present Technology”). Shotgun sequencing caused genome sequencing to become much quicker and to be the most widely used method. (1) The effect of this process was genome sequencing going viral.
1983- Kary Mullis invented the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The PCR is able to make many copies of DNA segments in a simple and inexpensive way, such as diagnosing diseases, identifying bacteria and viruses, and recognizing criminals for crime scenes. (1)
1990- The Human Genome Project began.
1984- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and international groups held conferences to discus the human genome. (2)
1988- The idea of mapping the human genome was presented in order to find genetic maps, physical maps, and the complete nucleotide sequence map of the human chromosomes. (2)
2003- Scientist were able to accurately map the human genome. (1)
September, 2012- Genome editing began with the discovery of epigenetic editing. (3) Epigenetics is able to shape the structure of the genome by tightly wrapping inactive genes to making them unreadable, and relaxing active genes to make them readable. Hello, my name is Ella…....Let me ask to ponder something for a moment as I begin. When you think of genes and gene editing, what do you think of? Well for starters what is gene editing? Genome Editing is the process of editing an organisms DNA by altering, removing or adding nucleotides to the genome. This process is accomplished through the use of engineered nucleases that can make a double stranded “cut” or a single stranded “nick” in an organism's DNA.Genome editing has been a heavily studied field for a number of years with an ultimate goal of specificity to limit off target effects. The first engineered nuclease technology, Zinc Finger, was presented in a 1991 publication by Pavletich and Pabo in the journal Science. Zinc Finger was the predominant genome targeting technology for over ten years, but over time drawbacks to the system emerged. Certain nucleotide triplets could not be targeted, and interactions within a zinc finger array could reduce specificity. In 2009 when the genome targeting abilities of TAL effectors was published, they were quickly harnessed for genome editing and transcription activator-like effector nuclease, or TALEN, emerged. TALEN allowed for a larger window of potential target sites and a simple method of building TAL effector arrays was introduced in 2011. As a result of these advancements and its overall potential, TALEN was named “Method of the Year 2011” by the journal nature methods. In 2012 clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR, was demonstrated as a new genome editing tool. CRISPR(crisper) was discovered somewhat fortuitously by researchers studying bacterial defense mechanisms, specifically how bacteria deal with foreign plasmids and phages. Bacteria have the ability to open and alter the genomes of invading viruses with a nuclease called Cas9, inactivating them in the process. CRISPR formulates a complex containing the Cas9 nuclease and small guide RNAs (sgRNA) and can be redirected by using different sgRNAs. This property eliminates the need to construct a completely customized endonuclease for each target, something that is still required by TALEN(tallen) and Zinc Finger. As a result of this the entry barrier to genome editing has been lowered significantly, allowing for more users and more innovation.