JoinAll Case Studies
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In keyword search, list the criteria you would like to find cases. Multiple criteria can be listed separated by commas (i.e. directed, high school)
Educational levels are defined as follows: Elementary, Middle, High School, College
Types of cases are defined as follows: Analysis/Issues, Clicker, Debate, Intimate Debate, Demonstration, Dilemma/Decision, Directed, Discussion, Interrupted, Jig-saw, Journal Article, Laboratory, Student Presentations, Mini-case, Problem-Based Learning, Public Hearing, Role-Play, Trial, Flipped, Game
By Erica L. Gerace, Alexa Wnorowski, Sarah Wojiski
This case study introduces concepts within pharmacogenomics and population genetics folded into a story focused on genetic ancestry and how it is distinct from an individual’s racial or ethnic identity. The storyline follows “Dr. Carter,” a neu...
By Caroline E. Branan
In this case study, students learn about intersex through the lens of Dana Zzyym, an intersex activist known for advocating for intersex visibility and for campaigning to include “X” as a valid sex designation on passports and other legal documen...
By Joanna K. Hubbard
In the 1950s, a Brazilian geneticist set out to develop a hybrid honey bee that would be both hardy enough for the tropical climates of Central and South America and highly productive. This case study follows the story of that experiment—and how it...
By David S. Parker, David E. Gammon, Jennifer Uno, Jessica A. Merricks
Undergraduate students are often unaware that early modern humans originated in Africa and that over many millennia many populations of humans walked thousands of miles across the Earth to become all the indigenous populations we see today. This case...
By Jonatan Alejandro Yepes Giraldo
This interrupted case study immerses students in one of the most pivotal discoveries in genetics: the physical location of genes on chromosomes. Set in the early 20th century, the case follows Thomas Hunt Morgan’s investigation into an unexpected w...
CRISPR-Cas9 and Sickle Cell Anemia
By Elizabeth R. Everman
In December 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first gene therapy using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to treat sickle cell anemia. This case study covers the basic mechanism of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in its original context (the b...
By Chandler M. Ciuba, Abigail Rohr, Min-Ken Liao, Linnea R. Freeman
In this case study, students follow the progress of “Nathan,” a competitive hotdog eating champion, as he visits his doctor and a nutritionist who explain to him his risk of developing colon cancer due to his lifestyle and family history. Colon c...
The Anti-Cancer Fight with the Wellness Menu
By Michelle Sue, Kenneth W. Yip
This directed case study engages students in an accessible discussion of cancer pathogenesis, prevention, and risk factors. Students are introduced to “William,” a middle-aged man worried about his cancer risk. William seeks out his family physic...
By Alison J. Albee, J. Megan Woltz, Taylor Kemp, Emma Mays, Tylor M. Miller, Eric Fisher, Amanda Loutzenhiser
This case study focuses on the characteristic of tusklessness in the African elephant population of Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, to examine molecular and macroscopic aspects of evolution. Students are introduced to the plight of African eleph...
By Madison Hossack, Kenneth W. Yip
At the intersection of cell biology, genetics, and molecular biology, this case study examines the complexities of vesicular transport and the potentially large-scale implications on human health in instances of dysregulation. Students analyze and ev...
By Melanie E. Peffer
“Scott” and “Celeste” want to have another baby, but their plans go awry when Celeste miscarries twice. Students follow the couple’s struggle in this case study to learn about meiosis, independent assortment, chromosomal rearrangements, bal...
Those Who Wish to Sing Always Find a Song
By Justin W. Merry
This interrupted case study examines the evolution of cricket stridulation in the Hawaiian Islands, where a silent, non-stridulating phenotype of Teleogryllus oceanicus has evolved and spread throughout Hawaiian populations in just over a decade in r...
To Pick a Peck of Orange Peppers
By Pamela Kalas, Fatima Syed
This illustrated, interrupted case study explores the genetic and molecular mechanisms leading to color variation in bell peppers. Students are introduced to the roles of several genes involved in the fruit maturation process, with a focus on the bio...
By Theresa L. Beaty
“Wesley,” an apparently healthy newborn boy, develops breathing difficulties and becomes unresponsive around 48 hours after birth. Clinical tests show elevated levels of ammonia and organic acids with corresponding acidemia; genetic tests uncover...
By Stephanie Dingwall, Tammy Nguyen
This interrupted case study is an exploration of ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, which results from a genetic defect in a urea cycle enzyme. Students are introduced to a 21-year-old patient who loses consciousness after a gym session. Up...
By Winyoo Chowanadisai, Bryant H. Keirns
Selenocysteine is commonly referred to as the 21st amino acid and is incorporated into selenoproteins through exceptional yet logical and systematic circumstances. This case study is designed for students to get hands-on experience working with a bio...
By Kuei-Chiu Chen
In this interrupted case study, students learn about the influence of early fetal nutritional conditions on the expression of genes related to metabolism and growth. Beginning with the true event of a food and fuel embargo that led to famine in the w...
By Shuangying Yu, Weston McNeely
This “clicker case” tells the story of “Hannah,” a baby girl adopted by two loving parents who grows up with an uncontrolled appetite and develops severe early-onset obesity. Students follow Hannah’s story as she develops excessive eating e...
By Eric R. Sandhurst, Jevin G. Meyerink, Steven Powell, Brooklyn K. VanDerWolde, Adison A. Kleinsasser, Thomas R. Vierhout, Jessica L.S. Zylla, Madeline A. Valentin
This case study is a role-playing game designed to guide students through the process of diagnosing five common types of cancer. Players roll a 20-sided die and receive information from various healthcare professionals in an oncology clinic setting. ...
By Brenda F. Canine, Michael L. Dini, Breanna N. Harris
In this modular case study, students discover how the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) membrane channel protein affects multiple physiological systems. The case is divided into an introductory narrative followed by five sect...
By Tiha M. Long
This interrupted case study explores the general topic of health disparities by focusing on the specific example of breast cancer mortality disparity between black and white women in the city of Chicago, Illinois. The case encourages the use of analy...
By Andrea M. Henle
This interrupted case study tells the story of a woman with cystic fibrosis and her husband. The couple is presented with an opportunity to potentially fix the woman's disease-causing gene using CRISPR. Students follow the couple as they face decisio...
By Daniel B. Stovall
This directed case study introduces students to “Kay,” a 10-month-old baby whose symptoms suggest to her pediatrician that she has a tumor of the eye called retinoblastoma. Students learn about the genetics of this cancer by following the convers...
By Laura Y. Lorentzen, Kristie Reilly, Connor Baucom, Elizabeth A. Manheim
This case study, designed for the “flipped” classroom, is divided into four parts that explore the etiology of Huntington disease. Students complete the first two sections before coming to class by watching videos and an interactive module from H...
Becoming a Friend Instead of a Foe
By Melissa R. Eslinger, Cameron B. Marlow
This case study centers on symbiotic relationships between insects and bacteria using Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, and the recently discovered bacterial species Sodalis praecaptivus. Until recently, the only known Sodalis species of...
By Leah A. Roesch
This interrupted case study is based on a PBS NOVA episode covering events in the summer of 1982 when seven California heroin users mysteriously and suddenly developed Parkinson’s disease. The video, which is shown in class and paused at several de...
By Kathleen A. Nolan
In this PowerPoint-driven case study, students compare and contrast poliovirus and its effects with SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Before the class meeting, students watch a set of videos and read two research papers. In class, the presentation begins with the...
By Alison Kieffer, Emaly J. Piecuch, Christina Vallianatos, Sarah A. Wojiski
In this directed case study, students follow the story of “Marcus,” a recent college graduate who is working as a technician in a clinical laboratory to gain experience before applying to medical school. Marcus’ work duties suddenly shift when ...
By Amy C. Groth
The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, was first detected in China in late 2019 and rapidly spread throughout the globe in the first few months of 2020. Efforts to slow the spread of the virus in the ...
By Laura Pickell
This analysis case study uses a jigsaw activity in which students learn about characteristics of the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2. The protagonist of the case, “Malik,” is a public health nurse who has been assigned to answer ph...
By Phyllis Baudoin Griffard
This modular case study tells the story of Dan and Annie, a married couple of Acadian ancestry who have a genetic form of deafblindness called Usher syndrome. They live in Southwest Louisiana, home of the largest population of DeafBlind citizens in t...
By Michael J. Wagner, John Hanna, Amy T. Hark
This case study introduces students to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and its underlying genetics, cell biology, and some of the associated biochemical pathways. DMD is an X-linked disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness an...
By Melissa R. Eslinger, Ryan E. Rodriguez, Jonathan W. Roginski
This case study centers on “Tom,” a 43-year-old male patient, and his recent genetic sequencing results and diagnosis of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2A). Tom has a heterozygous mutation within the RET gene, a proto-oncogene, which con...
By Julia A. Emerson, Andrew E. Emerson
In this interrupted case study, students examine the fundamental connections between genotype, 3-D protein structure and phenotype by exploring possible underlying causes of the human genetic disorder, spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SEDC), a...
By M. May Zhang, Maria E. Latta
This case study follows the process of diagnosing a patient, 67-year-old “Chester Fitzgerald,” who has suffered an ischemic stroke. An ECG is performed, but is not conclusive. During a physical exam, his doctor discovers a splenomegaly and orders...
Solving a Medical Mystery with Bioinformatics
By Kelly L. Brackett, Gareth R. Howell, Charles G. Wray, Sarah A. Wojiski
This computer-based case study guides students through publically available bioinformatics databases to solve a medical mystery. The case relates the real-life story of Dr. James Lupski, a renowned geneticist, who has a rare form of Charcot-Marie-Too...
The Canadian Canola Controversy
By Susan E. Gass, Danielle Scriven
This case study reviews a controversial court case that took place in Canada in 2002 concerning an allegation of patent infringement and a genetically modified (GM) canola crop. The multi-national company Monsanto, which produces GM canola seeds call...
Peppered Moths and the Industrial Revolution
By Avril M. Harder, Janna R. Willoughby, Jaqueline M. Doyle
This interrupted case study was written for students to gain a better understanding of evolutionary concepts and principles as they develop their skills in hypothesis creation, experimental design, and critical analysis of experimental assumptions. T...
By Janna R. Willoughby, Avril M. Harder, Jaqueline M. Doyle
This interrupted case study is based on a journal article that describes the rapid adaptation of a population (in this case, steelhead trout) in response to a shift in environmental conditions despite genome‐wide reductions in genetic diversity. Fi...
Diagnosing and Treating Charlie’s Strange Spots
By Joseph D. Shih
This case study introduces a patient who comes into a doctor's office with an interesting set of symptoms that leads to an exotic cancer diagnosis. The case provides students with an opportunity to identify and classify patient information (signs, sy...