Description

In this activity, students will analyze raw data obtained from an experiment that explores the effect of overexpressing the Ssk protein in order to strengthen the intestinal barrier and prevent bacteria from leaking out of the gut and into the hemolymph, which is the fruit fly equivalent to blood in the circulatory system.  Only a few data points were collected throughout the experiment to minimize costs and the sacrifice of the model organism, the fruit fly.  Model organisms are used in order to conduct informative biological experiments in an ethical, cost effective, and timely manner.  Fruit flies are one of the most common genetic models because of their ease of maintenance and their genetic similarity to many other organisms, including humans, with fruit flies expressing 70% of human disease-causing genes.  It is well known that bacteria grow proportionally to the number present, which means that they obey an exponential growth model.  Using Excel, students will fit an exponential function to the few known data points and will then interpolate the missing data points and extrapolate a few future data points. They will also learn how they can fit a linear model by transforming the data (applying the logarithmic function) and use that model to estimate the missing data points. This activity involves both statistical analysis and mathematical modeling as well as displaying the usefulness of mathematical models for biological data analysis.

This module was inspired by Dr. Salazar’s research on leaky gut and uses real data obtained in her laboratory.

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