Tutorial 1 – Written Assignment (Virtual Experiment)
(Note: This instruction document must be read in conjunction with the assessment Criteria and Standards given in the learning guide)
Background and aim:
Drug-X is a newly developed drug proposed for the treatment of metabolic syndrome. This virtual experiment is to evaluate the effect of drug-X on metabolic syndrome. You are asked to test this drug by conducting an in vivo study using laboratory rat model (Sprague-Dawley rats). You are asked to induce metabolic syndrome in the rats by feeding high-fat diet (60% fat) for 10 weeks and then treat the rats orally with drug-X (100 mg/kg) for 4 weeks. You are asked to collect blood samples at the end of 4-week treatment period to measure glucose, insulin, total cholesterol and triglycerides. During your laboratory investigation, the following raw data is obtained for the various experimental groups of rats after analysing the blood samples:
Normal control group (n=3)
| Serum biomarker | Rat 1 | Rat 2 | Rat 3 |
| Glucose (mg/dL) | 102 | 98 | 109 |
| Insulin (μU/mL) | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| Total cholesterol (mg/dL) | 68 | 76 | 59 |
| Triglycerides (mg/dL) | 31 | 43 | 37 |
Disease control group (n=3)
| Serum biomarker | Rat 1 | Rat 2 | Rat 3 |
| Glucose (mg/dL) | 214 | 239 | 228 |
| Insulin (μU/mL) | 16 | 23 | 19 |
| Total cholesterol (mg/dL) | 135 | 156 | 149 |
| Triglycerides (mg/dL) | 126 | 168 | 157 |
Drug-X treated group (n=3)
| Serum biomarker | Rat 1 | Rat 2 | Rat 3 |
| Glucose (mg/dL) | 132 | 140 | 104 |
| Insulin (μU/mL) | 8 | 10 | 7 |
| Total cholesterol (mg/dL) | 77 | 69 | 84 |
| Triglycerides (mg/dL) | 42 | 56 | 38 |
Assignment Task:
The primary goal of this assignment is to prepare a scientific report based on the above investigation. You need to write your report reflecting a real-life laboratory experiment. You need to recognise that this is a piece of scientific writing, not an opinion piece and therefore you must avoid casual language and colloquialisms and the document must be grammatically correct. The assignment has to be in the form of a scientific report with sections including title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, references, tables and/or figures. You are advised to familiarise with the detailed marking criteria and standards provided for this assessment task in the Learning Guide.
The assignment must include references according to Harvard Referencing Style as shown in below examples:
o Nammi S, Sun YT & Chang D. (2014). The effects of ginger on metabolic syndrome: A review of evidence. In D. Ghosh, D. Bagchi& T. Konishi (Eds.), Clinical aspects of functional foods and nutraceuticals (pp. 381-397). Boca Raton: CRC Press.ISBN-10: 1466569107; ISBN-13: 978-1466569102.
o Nammi S, Roufogalis BD. Light-to-Moderate Ethanol Feeding Augments AMPK-α Phosphorylation and Attenuates SREBP-1 Expression in the Liver of Rats. Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences 2013; 16(2): 342-351.
The length of the assignment must not exceed 1500 words (excluding Title, Abstract, Keywords, References, and Figure Legends). NOTE: you do not have to “hit” this number of words (i.e. if you can provide the appropriate information in a more concise manner and therefore with fewer words, you are welcome to do so) – it is a maximum. However, you do have to ensure that you have covered the relevant information in sufficient detail to ensure that the average reader understands the information but without over- elaborating the point.
