Precision Medicine

A pizza box and ping-pong ball model that demonstrates the principles of microarray technology.

• Students will learn that DNA molecules in a solution can be separated and identified using microarray technology.
• Students will observe how microarray analysis allows scientists to test which genes are on or off in different tissue samples (optional).

Students learn about single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and how they can be used to match patients with appropriate medications.

• Students will learn about a key Pharmacogenetic approach to tailoring prescription medication to an individual’s genotype.
• Students will learn that single nucleotide substitutions in DNA sequences are known as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs).
• Students will locate SNPs in genetic sequences.
• Students will learn that people with the same SNPs in a particular region of DNA are grouped into haplotypes.
• Students will group DNA sequences into haplotypes based on the SNPs those sequences contain.
• Students will learn that people with different haplotypes may have a different response to the same medication.

The Precision Medicine module was funded by the Program in Personalized Health at the University of Utah.