Precision medicine describes an emerging approach to health management: identifying treatment and prevention strategies for a person based on their unique genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. In the newest LabXchange cluster, Exploring Precision Medicine, secondary science students and educators can investigate how our genes affect not only visible traits but also traits that cannot be seen, like our response to medications.

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Based on the Amgen Biotech Experience Exploring Precision Medicine module, the cluster—a collection of learning resources—covers six topics, ranging from “Is My Sense of Taste Controlled by My Genes?” to “SNPs and Drug Metabolism.” In total, the cluster includes over 40 learning resources from the Amgen Biotech Experience and other LabXchange collaborators, including Khan Academy, PhET, Wellcome Genome Campus, and the Dana Foundation. It includes five interactives designed by LabXchange:

• How To: Extracting DNA from Cheek Cells
• The TAS2R38 Taste Receptor: Does That Taste Bitter to You?
• PCR Mechanism
• Restriction Fragment Analysis of the TAS2R38 Gene
• How Does Your Body Process Medicine

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The cluster also contains three videos created in collaboration with Amgen scientists: What is Precision Medicine?, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Personalized Prescriptions.

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Wondering how to make use of these resources in the classroom? Exploring Precision Medicine includes a teaching guide for each core pathway. Adaptations of the Amgen Biotech Experience Exploring Precision Medicine Curriculum, the teaching guides provide pacing, ideas for in-person instruction and discussion, as well as links to digital supports for a hybrid experience. The guides also offer ideas for customizing the material for your students, as well as fostering discussions and prompting deeper questions.

A free online platform for science education developed at Harvard University, LabXchange offers over 20,000 free learning resources. Groupings of learning resources, called clusters, allow learners of all ages to explore science from multiple perspectives. Interested in learning more? Explore other clusters, pathways, or any of the 21,000 other resources in the LabXchange library.