About Your Diet and Your DNA Virtual Lab Simulation
Everything you eat will impact your DNA. In this simulation, you will learn about the connection between nutrients in your diet and the stability of your DNA.
Food composition and digestion
Join two young school girls and discover how their contrasting food choices impact them. You will review their food choices by looking at the nutrients’ 3D structures and compositions. Next, you will dive deeper into the human digestive system. Through detailed 3D animations, you’ll get the opportunity to travel through the gut with the bacteria and see how nutrients are absorbed in the human body.
DNA experiments
You will perform two experiments to uncover how nutrients impact the DNA structure. In these experiments, you will compare samples taken from people with healthy and unhealthy diets. In the first experiment, you will measure the DNA telomere length. In the second experiment, you will measure the DNA adduct level from colon samples.
Plan a healthy meal
Finally, you will use your acquired knowledge to plan a healthy meal for Mia, who is a school athlete. You can choose from a range of different food options to build your meal plan. Will you be able to help Mia get her energy back?
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Techniques In Lab
- Flow cytometry
- Micropipetting
- Histology slide preparation
- Microscopy
- Diet planning
Learning Objectives
At the end of this simulation, you will be able to…
- Describe nutrient compositions of healthy and unhealthy diets
- Explain how genomic instability may lead to the development of diseases such as cancer
- Summarize the impact of diet on genomic stability
Collaborators
Dr. Caroline Bull
Food and Nutrition scientist CSIRO Health and BiosecurityDr. Michael Conlon
Food and Nutrition scientist CSIRO Health and BiosecurityCSIRO Education and Outreach
How it works
A million dollar lab in your browser
Perform experiments in virtual lab simulations to achieve core science learning outcomes.
All our simulations run on laptop and desktop computers, and you can play our simulations without having to install any browser plugins.
Hundreds of hours of science learning content
Our virtual laboratory simulations are aimed at university, college and high school level, within fields such as biology, biochemistry, genetics, biotechnology, chemistry, physics and more.
With access to our simulations, you will have hundreds of hours of engaging, high-quality learning content available to you.