Biochemistry- Nucleic Acids and Biological Information Flow (genetic Engineering)
This is a cumulative exam worth 20% of your final grade in the course. It consists of 3 questions. Each question is divided into parts for a total of 30 points (each question is 10 marks).
Word limits for each question are provided. Be mindful of these word limits and consider using a text editor to count your words. Answers that go over the word limit will only be considered up until the limit has been met.
This assessment was designed to take approximately 2-3 hours. But you may download this exam and work on it at your leisure over 48 hours. Read each question carefully and make sure that you have answered each part of each question. If there is a term or something unclear in a question, include a short note with an asterisk (*note) describing your interpretation of the question, and we will consider this when grading.
This assessment is an open book, individual assessment. You may use your notes, lecture slides, optional textbook and study guide questions to help formulate your answers. You do not need to reference these resources in your answers. Should you choose to use a source from outside the course, please do cite your source with an in-text citation (Author, Year) and full reference list at the bottom of the page (this will not count towards the word limit).Assessments will be submitted to Turnitin.com for a plagiarism review automatically when uploaded to Quercus. You may submit the assessment as a PDF or word document.
Bonne Chance!!!
Q1. You are a member of a drug discovery team and tasked with identifying three potential targets for novel antibiotics. As you learned in BCH311, an ideal antibiotic will target prokaryotes but not eukaryotes. Therefore, your team wants to engineer novel antibiotics that target prokaryotic information transfer (nucleotide biosynthesis, replication, transcription or translation) that will not affect humans. Your role on the team is the following:
Identify three differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes regarding information transfer that could serve as a druggable targets. Present this information to your team by designing a graphical abstract (1-page max) that illustrates these three differences. Include the three theoretical drugs in your figure, one for each of the differences you have highlighted, and clearly show where it would target. (6 marks)
Provide a figure caption to accompany your figure (350 words max) that explains the differences and highlights how your theoretical drugs would work. (4 marks)
Tips for success
You may use images/figures from the course material (encouraged), but you may modify these images (also encouraged) to highlight your message (i.e. crop, add labels, change colours, etc.). You do not need to reference any material you are using from the course.
You may use images from additional sources if you find this helpful, but this is not required. If you do, please do reference this material by stating “adapted from Author, Year” in your caption with a full reference list at the bottom (references would not count towards your word limit).
Focus on images. You want to make a visual impact. Avoid large pieces of text in the graphical abstract.
You do not need to find a drug already in use, or draw a theoretical drug structure, you can use a simple cartoon schematic or inhibitor symbol in your graphical abstract.
You do not need to include a component from each area of information transfer, (replication, transcription, translation) but you do want to propose three separate differences and potential inhibition mechanisms.
Ensure your graphical abstract is clear, cohesive and easy to follow – consider using colour-coding, labels and symbols (examples below).