5015BIO Cellular Basis of Disease Lab Report Assignment Brief | CU

5015BIO Assignment Task

You need to report, analyse and present your research findings in a laboratory report.

A patient is presenting with lower back pain, haematuria and loss of appetite. As such, a clinician believes the patient may have kidney disease/renal cancer. You have been asked to investigate in the lab.

In laboratory sessions, you will perform Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qPCR), Immunophenotyping assays and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). 

• Immunophenotyping will provide the basis of disease diagnosis in a biopsy sample compared to a healthy control
• qPCR data will link disease progression and cellular pathways in a biopsy sample compared to a healthy control
• Sandwich ELISA will measure IL-6 production from the serum of a patient with a healthy kidney vs a diseased kidney

This report will need to include an introduction, justification of methods, results and discussion. Word counts for each section below are suggestions only.

Introduction (450 words)

Should contain a critical review of the literature surrounding renal cell carcinomas and, more specifically, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) (correct reference citation using APA formatting).

• Review of clear cell renal cell carcinoma pathophysiology
• Epithelial and mesenchymal transitions should integrate cell-cell adhesion within the development of this type of renal carcinoma
• Case study introduced
• Aims included

Justification of methods (350 words)

You will undertake 4 lab sessions, these are qPCR, immunophenotyping and ELISA Lab 1 and 2. 

• Explain the research design of the study, and think about the outcomes of the experiments.
• Briefly integrate the underlying theory.

Results (450 words)

Descriptive text with integrated Figures/tables. The results should be presented in a logical order, and Figures/Tables should be presented and labelled. Data will be available through Aula.

• For each experiment/figure: (a) briefly introduce what you did and why; (b) then show the Figure/Table; (c) then clearly describe the Figure. The data that should be presented is qPCR healthy vs control, immunophenotyping healthy vs control and your ELISA healthy vs control.
• Do not include any raw data or calculations. You may need to refer to this in the text, but these should not feature in the results section. 

Discussion (750 words)

You should critically review your data and explain your results using molecular pathways. This section should be driven by the literature.

• Initially (briefly) review the main aims and integrate them into the main findings.
• Explain what your results show, but more importantly, link to literature to explain your results, i.e. how does IL-6 or E-cadherin link to patient prognosis?
• You should explain the importance of your result for the patient, i.e. possible diagnosis and prognosis based on your research findings. 

The word count for this task is 2000 words. If you exceed this word limit by more than 10%, i.e., if you exceed 2200 words, then you will be penalised by a deduction of 10% of your final mark. Your work will only be read up to the allocated limit. You should state your word count at the end of your work.

The following are included in your word allowance: 

• The text of your written work
• Reference citations and references to figures and tables within the text
• Descriptive paragraphs as Figure or Table legends
• Narrative text included in Tables  

The following are excluded from your word allowance: 

• The title
• Figure and Table headings
• Words, sequences and numbers associated with figures and tables (however, extensive narrative text presented in Tables will count)
• Reference list
• The word count details

5015BIO Assessed Module Learning Outcomes

The Learning Outcomes for this module align with the marking criteria, which can be found at the end of this brief. Ensure you understand the marking criteria to ensure achievement of the assessment task. The following module learning outcomes are assessed in this task:

• LO1 Critically evaluate current research literature relating to the control of key cellular processes to explain disease development mechanisms and disease pathophysiology.
• LO4 Analyse, report and evaluate laboratory experiments to assess changes in gene expression in cells, including appropriate statistical tests.