Understanding haemophilia, one amino acid at a time

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

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 Dr Jill M. Johnsen, at the University of Washington in the US, who is using the latest DNA sequencing techniques to dig down into the changes to one gene that lead to haemophilia B, examining the role of every amino acid within the protein it encodes. This will create a comprehensive ‘map’ of the gene, leading to an in-depth genetic understanding of the disease.
• This resource also contains an interview with Jill, providing an insight into careers in haemotology.
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Jill’s research, and tasks them to think about how DNA sequencing is benefitting research into haemophilia.

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).

If you like these free resources – or have suggestions for improvements –, please let us know and leave us some feedback. Thank you!