Affiliate Lesson Plan

Lorenzo’s Oil

Suggested Lesson Plan by the Executive Board of the Biology Teachers Association of NJ

Issues

Genetics

• ariable expressivity
• Competitive Inhibition
• X-linkage

Ethics

• Clinical Trials and Testing
• Profit vs People (Orphan Drugs)
• Grant Financing
• Constraints of Researchers (stringent requirements for Human Testing)
• Family Advocacy

Science as a Process of Discovery

• Paradigms in Medicine
• How the layperson can use Science to investigation family medical dilemma
• How to deal with conceptual conundrums via analogy

Biochemistry

• Enzymes
• Lipid (differentiation between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids)
• Nucleic Acids

Cell Biology

• Structure and function of the neuron

Eleven Potential Questions

1. What are the rules by which ALD researchers must work when they run clinical trials?
2. What risks are run by researchers who try to run studies knowing that the molecules under question may be toxic?
3. Is every ALD child capable of profiting by using Lorenzo’s Oil?
4. How can you figure out who will profit?
5. What is the difference between a cure and a therapy? Does the oil reverse the symptoms of the disorder or halt its progress?
6. What is the current state of the research on ADL?
7. With the use of Lorenzo’s Oil ameliorating symptoms are any ADL males reaching reproductive age? What is their responsibility to future generations in respect to producing offspring.
8. Lorenzo’s mother and aunt are carriers of the disorder with elevated levels of long chain fatty acids in their blood, how come they don’t have symptoms?
9. Knowing what we know now about how molecules form, if Lorenzo’s oil works on a specific enzyme, how come we can’t design a drug that specifically fits into the active site of that enzyme?
10. How has the Human Genome Project affected our knowledge of the ALD gene?
11. If the therapy reverses the symptoms, how does this fit with the notion that nerves do not regenerate?

Web Sites

• http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bstith/loren.htm
• http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webfilms/lorenzo.s.oil25-film-.html
• http://www.myelin.org/overview.htm
• http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/lorenzos-oil.html
• http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/neurol/lorenz.html
• http://rarediseases.about.com/cs/ald/a/041301.htm
• http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1993/01/800178.html

Traditional Lesson Plan

Patty Sidelsky (BTANJ Executive Board Biology, Teacher Cherokee High School )

The Bioinformatics of ALD Lesson Plan

Rob Richard(BTANJ Executive Board, Science Supervisor West Windsor-Plainsboro High School )