Assignment

From your course textbook In the Family: A Case Workbook to Accompany Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications, read the assigned case study in the following chapters:

In a 4 page Microsoft Word document, create a work sheet by answering the Questions for Research and Discussion provided for each case study

1. Look up U.S. Patent 5654155 at uspto gov website, which covers use of the BRCA1 gene's DNA sequence. Discuss what the patent covers and whether you think companies should be permitted to patent gene sequences.

2. Do Web research or consult Chapter 18 in the textbook to name a gene, other than BRCA1, that increases risk of developing breast cancer when mutant. What is the process or mechanism that the mutation disrupts?

3. Discuss how alternate splicing can complicate the study of mutations in the BRCA1 gene.

4. Distinguish between a hereditary germline cancer, such as those caused by BRCA1 mutations, and cancers that result from two somatic mutations in the same gene in the same cell.

5. Explain how mutations in the same gene can cause different types of cancer?