In this interactive investigation, students will model a synthetic biologist’s work by designing DNA, transcribing it into mRNA, constructing the resulting amino acid chain, and measuring the cohesiveness of biosynthesized silk-amyloid-mussel-inspired proteins.
Grade Levels: 9-12
Standard: MS-LS3-1 HS-LS1-1 HS-ETS1-3
Topics: Synthetic Biology, Genetics, Molecular Biology, Engineering
Contributor: David Ganey, Maplewood-Richmond Heights High School
Acknowledgements: The contents of this curriculum were co-developed with Dr. Marcus Foston at McKelvey School of Engineering at WashU and were funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Collaborative Research: GCR: Accelerated Discovery of Synthetic Biological Materials, Award number OIA-2219142). These contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.