Viral vector chart
This page has four parts, in the order you use them. Part 1 is what you need to know. Part 2 says what to do, in plain English. Part 3 shows the work done once on a case that is not yours. Part 4 is your own work and where to turn it in.
Open your materials, follow the steps, then turn in your work.
Chart how viral vectors deliver a therapeutic gene and distinguish somatic from germline targets.
Optional: listen or watch a unit review▸
Part 1 of 4 · Background and definitions▸
💡 Big idea: Engineers gut a virus of its disease genes but keep its cell-entry machinery, so the same tool that once caused infection can now deliver a cure.
- • Viral vectors are engineered to remove disease-causing genes and replace them with a therapeutic payload; they retain their ability to enter and deliver to cells.
- • Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a common vector: small payload capacity, low , non-integrating; retroviruses integrate but carry higher - risk.
- • targets body cells, often stem or progenitor cells such as blood stem cells, as well as tissues such as liver, retina or muscle; effects are not heritable.
Every claim in a scientific report must trace to a specific data value, because a reviewer trusts quantified statements and distrusts vague ones, so anchoring each sentence to a number is what makes the report credible.
Engineers gut a virus of its disease genes but keep its cell-entry machinery, so the same tool that once caused infection can now deliver a cure.
Driving question: A child is missing a working copy of a gene their liver needs. How do you get a healthy copy of that gene inside their liver cells, when you cannot just swallow in a pill?
What you already know: Every claim in a scientific report must trace to a specific data value, because a reviewer trusts quantified statements and distrusts vague ones, so anchoring each sentence to a number is what makes the report credible.
New idea: Engineers gut a virus of its disease genes but keep its cell-entry machinery, so the same tool that once caused infection can now deliver a cure.
Visual or model: No figure is attached to this lesson. The readings, the worked example and E1 to E3 carry the evidence.
- Observe or measure the relevant feature in viral vector chart.
- Organize the observation with a stable evidence ID.
- Apply this rule: Stored information can be copied, read, and converted into a functional product.
- Choose the option the evidence supports and state the limit of the conclusion.
Real biomedical example: A child is missing a working copy of a gene their liver needs. How do you get a healthy copy of that gene inside their liver cells, when you cannot just swallow in a pill?
What the evidence supports: E1 to E3 support the daily take-home when the response meets the stated success criteria.
What it cannot prove: The package does not support claims beyond this lesson's or any real patient diagnosis.
- • : Treating disease by adding, silencing, or correcting a gene in a patient's cells.
- • vector: Two senses, set by the lesson. In infection control, a living , usually an insect such as a mosquito or a tick, that moves a from one host to the next. In genetics, a or virus engineered to carry into a cell.
- • : A gene-editing tool that uses a guide RNA to steer the Cas9 to a chosen site and cut it, so a sequence can be changed.
- • : Relating to the ordinary body cells other than egg and sperm; changes in these cells affect only the individual and are not inherited.
- • : The egg, sperm, and the cells that make them; changes in these cells can be passed to a person's children.
- • : An unintended effect when a drug or gene-editing tool acts on something other than its intended target, which can cause side effects.
- • : Agreeing to a treatment or study only after truly understanding its purpose, risks, benefits, and alternatives; the understanding, not the signature, is the ethics.
Use it now: Choose one decision option. Cite E1 and E3, then explain how the rule connects the evidence to your choice. This is thinking practice for the one turn-in named under Turn in, not a second submission.
Go further, optional: The source links below are optional enrichment. Every fact required for today's local evidence decision appears in this lesson package.
Gene therapies modify or use genetic material to change cell function, and their potential benefit must be weighed against delivery limits, immune effects, changes, durability, and whether changes could be inherited.
Limit: A classroom model cannot predict , effectiveness, or long-term outcomes for a particular therapy or patient.
Stored information can be copied, read, and converted into a functional product.
Limit: Genes are regulated biological sequences, not conscious instructions, and one gene rarely determines a whole trait alone.
You can diagram viral vector gene delivery.
Limit: E3 defines the classroom product or success criterion. It is not independent scientific evidence and cannot justify a clinical or causal claim.
Today's decision · Simulated classroom evidence scenario
Your role: medical interventions team member
Decision: Your team must decide what the evidence from viral vector chart supports before submitting the notebook record named on today's page.
- • Hold off calling the target until testing shows the vector cannot reach the egg or sperm cells that pass changes on.
- • Chart the vector as an emptied virus that keeps its cell-entry parts and carries the healthy gene into liver cells.
- • Warn the family that injecting a virus will give the child the infection that virus normally causes.
Response: State one choice, cite at least two evidence IDs, explain the rule that connects them, and add one limitation. Use it inside the one turn-in named under Turn in; it is not a separate submission.
Claim ceiling: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about viral vector chart. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Reason for review: Your team must decide what the evidence from viral vector chart supports before submitting the notebook record named on today's page.
Context: A virus is not automatically an enemy; engineers strip out what makes it dangerous and keep what makes it good at getting into cells, turning a threat into a delivery truck for medicine.
- • T1: Draw a viral vector carrying a healthy gene into a target cell, labeling vector and payload.
- • T2: Mark whether the edit is or and explain the difference in one line.
- • T3: Add a row comparing two vector types on capacity and , using the two vectors named in the Know section (AAV and a retrovirus).
- • T4: Write one sentence on why vector choice affects which cells are treated.
- • T5: Submit your vector chart as your daily evidence.
- • E1: Gene therapies modify or use genetic material to change cell function, and their potential benefit must be weighed against delivery limits, immune effects, changes, durability, and whether changes could be inherited.
- • E2: Stored information can be copied, read, and converted into a functional product.
- • E3: You can diagram viral vector gene delivery.
Measurements: Use only the measurements, units, graph, or counts supplied in today's task. No additional patient measurement is implied.
Uncertainty: This is a composite classroom scenario. Missing history, measurements, or confirmation tests remain unknown and limit the conclusion.
Students often think the virus in still makes you sick, so getting injected with a virus must give you the disease. The trap: A viral vector cannot cause the infection the original virus causes, because engineers remove the genes it needs to copy itself and cause disease, keeping only the shell that enters cells and drops off . It can still set off an immune reaction, and some of those reactions have been serious, so the risk is not zero. The trap is assuming the word virus means infection.
- CER:
- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: make a claim, back it with evidence, explain your reasoning.
- SOP:
- Standard Operating Procedure, the exact steps to follow (especially in a lab).
- Tracker:
- Your PLTW progress log where you record completed evidence.
- myPLTW:
- The PLTW course site where you do the online activities. Find it in Clever with your Microsoft sign-in, right next to Schoology.
Tap the speaker to hear a term. Add two of these to your notebook glossary with a definition and an example in your own words.
Pick just 2 or 3 words from today and make them yours: write what each one means in your own words, name the context clue or evidence that helped, then give one example from what you actually did in Viral vector chart. Try your own words first; the glossary is there if you get stuck. This is voluntary and counts as extra credit, so keep it short.
Saved on this device. Show Mr. Mendoza or add these to your notebook glossary to claim the extra credit.
Part 2 of 4 · Directions in plain English▸
2.1 Open your materials
Use the materials named in the first step below. Open lesson resources.
2.2 Start the work
Draw a viral vector carrying a healthy gene into a target cell, labeling vector and payload.
Show all 5 required steps
- Draw a viral vector carrying a healthy gene into a target cell, labeling vector and payload.
- Mark whether the edit is somatic or germline and explain the difference in one line.
- Add a row comparing two vector types on capacity and safety, using the two vectors named in the Know section (AAV and a retrovirus).
- Write one sentence on why vector choice affects which cells are treated.
- Submit your vector chart as your daily evidence.
Lost your place? If your drawing shows the vector carrying the healthy gene into a target cell with both labeled, move on to marking somatic versus germline and adding your two-vector comparison row. If your drawing is not labeled yet, finish the labels first.
- 0-8Hook cartoon; introduce viral vector concept and engineering rationale
- 8-25Draw vector-to-cell delivery diagram with labeled vector, payload, and target cell
- 25-40Mark edit as or ; write one-line explanation of the difference
- 40-58Add comparison row: two vector types, capacity and , from the Know section
- 58-72Write one sentence on why vector choice determines which cells are treated
- 72-80Submit vector chart in Schoology
- • Hook: Show a cartoon of a virus delivering a package to a cell and ask: what would you change about this delivery system to make it safe?
- • Why it matters: Choosing the wrong vector has caused immune reactions and insertional mutagenesis in early trials.
- • Today's work: You chart the delivery mechanism and compare two vectors so you can explain vector selection in the case.
- • Exit goal: Vector chart submitted before the bell.
PLTW connection and today's work
Open Activity 2.2.1 Gene Therapy in myPLTW and diagram how a viral vector delivers a therapeutic gene into a target cell.
Today's stopping point: Vector chart due today.
PLTW activity titles identify the course connection. If your account will not open, use the posted materials for today and tell Mr. Mendoza. Do not mark an online activity complete unless you completed it.
Use the turn-in directions in Part 4 of this page. Do not create a second submission unless your teacher asks for one.
Show another explanation or a smaller first step
Need help? Choose a starting point
Part 3 of 4 · Worked example▸
This is a parallel case, not your own. Read it for the order of the work, then do your own in Part 4.
Practice case, not today's: a gene the retina needs.
Diagram in words: A viral vector is a virus that has had its disease-causing genes removed and a therapeutic gene loaded in their place. It keeps its ability to enter a cell, so it delivers the healthy gene like a courier delivering a package.
Somatic vs. germline: In the practice case the vector targets retinal cells, which are somatic (non-reproductive), so the edit is not heritable. A germline target (egg, sperm, embryo) would be heritable, which is why somatic delivery is the safer, standard choice.
Why vector choice affects which cells are treated: Different vectors prefer different tissues and have different payload sizes, so the vector you pick determines which cells receive the gene and how safely.
| Vector | Payload capacity | Integrates? | Immune response |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAV | small | non-integrating | low |
| Retrovirus | larger | integrates into genome | higher insertion risk |
This model shows the level of evidence and organization needed to complete: Completes the vector notebook page: a labeled viral-vector delivery diagram, a somatic-versus-germline distinction, a two-vector comparison row, and a sentence on vector-cell targeting.
- Date and label the entry.
- Record the procedure, observation, or design decision clearly.
- End with what the evidence means and the next step.
Keep the structure. Replace the question, facts, measurements, and evidence. Then recheck units, vocabulary, and whether the conclusion goes beyond the evidence.
Also due today: Submit your vector chart in Schoology.
A library keeps a master plan protected while working copies guide production at different stations.
- Why protect the master copy?
- What information moves?
- Where can an error change the final product?
Stored information can be copied, read, and converted into a functional product.
Genes are regulated biological sequences, not conscious instructions, and one gene rarely determines a whole trait alone.
- • Master plan maps to .
- • Working copy maps to RNA.
- • Production output maps to or a regulated cell function.
Part 4 of 4 · Your work▸
Check your work before submitting
- You'll be able to diagram viral vector gene delivery.
- You'll be able to distinguish somatic from germline edits.
4.1 Turn in your work
DueCheck the Schoology assignment for this day- Hand in
- Viral vector delivery diagram with labeled components, somatic vs. germline distinction, two-vector comparison row, and one sentence on vector-cell targeting.
How to submit and name your file
Submit as one PDF in Schoology.
In Schoology, open your course and the assignment for this lesson. Attach your file, select Submit, and check that it appears in the submission.
PDF upload helpYou get two school days for every day you were absent, so this deadline moves with you.
Today's lesson is in Schoology
Each school day has one lesson page in Schoology that holds everything for the day: the goal, the story so far, every table and data value, the numbered steps, and what to turn in. Open it first and work from it. The other rows for this day, if any, are the score line for a paper quiz or test and the John Carroll debate item; they do not add work. Check Schoology for each deadline.
- Today's Lesson · Wed 11/4 · Wk11 · Design gene therapy for cystic fibrosis, then Alec's case and CRISPR-Cas9(today's lesson page: the goal, the data, the steps, and what to turn in are all on it)
Link will not open? Open Schoology, choose your course and section, and find the title shown above.
- CompleteEvery required part of the artifact is present, nothing left blank.
- AccurateThe science and the data are correct and match the evidence.
- Scientific reasoningYou explain your claim with evidence and reasoning (CER), not just an answer.
- Professional communicationClear, organized, labeled, and written the way a clinician or scientist would.
- SubmittedGo to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Schoology attaches your name to your upload; on the page itself, write your period and code. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
How this lesson connects
Keep using what you learned last class: Every claim in a scientific report must trace to a specific data value, because a reviewer trusts quantified statements and distrusts vague ones, so anchoring each sentence to a number is what makes the report credible. Today: Engineers gut a virus of its disease genes but keep its cell-entry machinery, so the same tool that once caused infection can now deliver a cure.
Practice: try a question, then check your answer▸
Claim ceiling for this check: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about viral vector chart. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Why do scientists choose adeno-associated virus (AAV) as a vector even though it can only carry a small gene?
Write an answer and pick a confidence to unlock the key.
Fast retrieval with instant answers, not the commit-then-reveal check above. Try each from memory first: write what you remember about the earlier units, then check yourself here.
Missed class or ready for more?▸
Optional practice for this unit's lab skills. Nothing in it is due today.
What today's skills lead to. These are real health-science careers this course builds toward. Tap one to see, on the US Department of Labor's O*NET site, what the job actually involves, what it pays, and how fast it is growing.
Today is individual work you can do from home: complete the same target above, then submit your Notebook check.
Go to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Schoology attaches your name to your upload; on the page itself, write your period and code. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
Class still runs. Complete today's work as this page describes (it is self-guided). Need the concept taught without a teacher? Use this authoritative explainer:
MedlinePlus: What is gene therapy?The optional extra-credit track is open. Complete reserved-unit work from home, including virtual labs, for extra credit. Each item shows its correct submission route.
Open the extra-credit trackSources: slides, readings, and resources▸
The deck carries the prior idea forward, lets you inspect an analogy, maps the rule to biology, and ends with the same evidence decision and exit ticket used on this page.
Classroom documents for this lesson are posted in Schoology. Open Clever, then Schoology, and find each one by the name shown on its card.
Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.
Open this when the class reaches this activity and use it to complete the required lesson artifact.
Use this after the required lesson work when you are ready for a harder application or a deeper connection.
Sign in to Clever with your district Microsoft account to open Schoology or myPLTW. Follow today's posted steps. If myPLTW will not open, use the posted alternative and tell Mr. Mendoza. Turn in your completed work through the Schoology assignment.
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