<i>Gene Hunting</i>: a contextualized inquiry sequence on gene expression, in silico research and ethics in biomedical communication

Abstract

Research in genetics has experienced big changes during the last years, and new research fields as Epigenetics and Pharmaco-Genomics have been triggered by bioinformatics developments, of application in biomedical research with social impact, as Alzheimer, Parkinson and cancer. We describe the development and application of an inquiry sequence contextualized in the search for genes regulating neuro-degenerative processes, in which students use bioinformatics applications from real research and participate in social dynamics of creation of scientific knowledge, which are analyzed from the perspective of ethics and scientific communication. Results are discussed together with a survey. Results show that the didactic sequence contributes to develop the students’ scientific skills and critic attitude towards communication of biomedical research. A guidance list for the development of contextualized inquiry activities is also proposed.