This web page was produced as an assignment for Gen677 at UW-Madison Spring 2009
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As mentioned in the Popular Press Review, the PHG Foundation's critique is not exactly a popular press article. The reviewer obviously has some scientific background and gives a relatively detailed description of the experiments carried out by Arron et al. However, given that it is only a two page summary of the scientific article, it does not provide the reader with the same breadth of knowledge they would get from actually reading the Nature paper. The PHG review does not provide any access to the figures from the article or any specific results. However, this is not the specific intention of the PHG review. Instead it is meant as an alert to other scientists (specifically those in the medical field) that a key gene leading to many common Down's Syndrome characteristics has been identified, and that the key players affecting that gene (from the 21st chromosome) have also been experimentally determined.
In regards to the Nature article itself, it is a very comprehensible paper. While obviously not intended for an everyday audience, the accessibility of this paper is very high. It lays out all of the procedures and methodologies in a way that anyone with even a small amount of background in this sort of science will be able to follow. It provides useful pictorial representations where warranted, and outlines the schematics of the experimental process very clearly. The only area where the reader may become lost is in the very last section during the description of mathematical modelling. Without a background in this specific algorithm it is unclear how their predictions are actually being determined. Regardless, their results are still clear and a distinct conclusion can be made about the role that NFATc plays in Down's Syndrome.
References:
1. PHG Foundation (5 June 2006). Down's Syndrome and the role of NFAT signaling pathway. Retrieved February 9, 2009, from http://www.phgfoundation.org/news/2518/
2. Arron et al. (2006) NFAT dysregulation by increased dosage of DSCR1 and DYRK1A on chromosome 21. Nature v.441 Retrieved February 9, 2009, from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v441/n7093/abs/nature04678.html
Margaret Noll, [email protected], last updated 3/15/2009, http://www.gen677.weebly.com
