The human story behind human genome sequencing

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 biology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Professor James Lupski, a pioneer in the field of clinical genomics at Baylor College of Medicine. He contributed to the first personal genome sequencing efforts and was then one of the first people to have their genome sequenced. Through his pioneering work, he helped uncover the causes of his own genetic condition.

• This resource also contains an interview with James and offers an insight into careers in clinical genomics. If your students have questions for James, they can send them to him online. All they need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). James will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on James’s research and challenges them to consider the ethics of genome sequencing.

• In the accompanying podcast, James talks about his personal genetics story.

• The article and activity sheet are also available in Spanish through the weblink below.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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