User:Indigo397

Please go to our Wikipedia course site and log in using your account information. Open your sandbox and create a rough draft of your Wikipedia technical description in the sandbox. In your draft, quote and paraphrase ideas from at least 3 recent academic sources. Your rough draft should be about 600 words (not including references) and it should not include the existing passages in your assigned Wikipedia article.

After drafting your Wikipedia assignment, copy and paste your rough draft into a word document and submit the word document here.

More information about the assignment can be found in the Wikipedia Technical Description assignment sheet. Please also check out the sample student essay.

Tips:

In your sandbox:

* Add citations: Select an entire sentence and click "cite" to add a citation.

* Add hyperlinks: Select key terms and create hyperlinks to other Wikipedia pages.

* Add headings/subheadings: Insert a heading or subheading into your edit by clicking "paragraph."

About sources:

* Cite at least 3 recent academic sources (e.g., journal articles, books, and/or conference papers) published within the past 5 years.

* Skim through the sources and focus on paraphrasing the following sections: abstract/introduction and discussion/implications/conclusion.

* Use signal phrases to introduce quotes/paraphrases, use quotation marks for direct quotes, and explain the quotes/paraphrases in your own words.

Genome Editing

The use as axolotls as model organisms allows them to be targets of genome editing/engineering through the CRISPR/Cas9 system. This is mainly due to interest in their excellent regenerative abilities which allows them to be a useful model organism for studying the regeneration of complex tissues and organs. Genome editing can mean "knocking in" or "knocking out" a gene. Knocking out is a term used to represent whether a gene in the organism is being cut out to simulate deficiencies caused by diseases. Knocking in is used to represent that a new gene has been introduced or a existing gene has an added function. Knock-ins can be of particular interest in axolotls as they are responsible for the axolotl morphs that glow under blacklight, this is caused by a fluorescent protein called GFP(Green Fluorescent Protein). GFP morphs of axolotls have this protein being expressed in their cells that gives them a green fluorescence when exposed to blacklight. The GFP gene will be knocked into specific genes of interest such as cells and proteins involved in regeneration. GFP knock ins in axolotls typically target stem cells and cells involved in the regeneration of tissues and organs to help aid researchers. Which will allow us to study how regeneration in axolotls is started and where these proteins move within the cell. There are many different types of fluorescent proteins all expressing different colors such as RFP and YFP. Which have expanded the different types and variants of axolotl morphs we see today.

Current Research:

Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Axolotls have been used in many avenues of biomedical research particularily in cancer research targeting human acute myeloid leukemia of HL-60 cells. A compound from axolotls called AXO(Axolotl Ambystoma mexicanum crude extract) has been shown to have antitumer activity in vitro on human acute myeloid leukemia HL-60 cell line. The activity of AXO was shown to have antiproliferative abilities which means it was capable of slowing the cancers growth without killing the cells and may be an avenue for treatment for acute myeloid leukemia.