This experiment was conducted by Hannah Yonts, Mela Sullivan, and Tyler Milby with the guidance and professionalism from Dr. Jacob Adler and Tristan Haight. Funding was provided via Brescia University, Title III Strengthening Institutions Program Grant, and the NSF funded RCN-UBE Cell Biology Education Consortium (#1827066).
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Purpose Statement |
Why Linolenic Acid? |
The goal of this experiment was to research the effect of α-Linolenic Acid on the number lipid droplets in HeLa cells.
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Linolenic acid was chosen because of its similarity in structure to oleic acid. Linolenic acid is an unsaturated fatty acid and is composed of hydrocarbons; however, the acid has more double bonds and is bigger than Oleic acid. Linolenic acid has 3 double bonds and 12 Carbons while Oleic acid has 1 double bond and 6 Carbons of Oleic acid. Linolenic acid also had the potential to cause an increase in the number of lipid droplets due to its larger structure.
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