BIOL 336: The Cell Cycle (HC) Spring 2023

Here's the true story of how I approached your assignment:

(1) I looked at the list of potential topics provided by Dr. Maas and settled on 'cell cycle defects in cancer'.

More specifically, how chemotherapy affects the cell cycle, i.e. how chemotherapy works

(2) I found a review article about chemotherapy and cellular senescence 

Cellular senescence = a state of permanent cell cycle arrest

(3) I looked for a study (or primary research article) on that topic

• Elimination of radiation-induced senescence in the brain tumor microenvironment attenuates glioblastoma recurrence
• Does it meet the 3 requirements?
  1. Significant enough - check!
  2. Written in past two years - check!
  3. Is not already associated with a 'News and Views' Nature article - check!
     • 'News and Views' example
     • Google "news and views" [original article title] OR [significant keyword]

(4) I found supporting literature, mostly scholarly review articles

See below for how I did it.

NOTE: It's ok if your process is messy!

How does chemotherapy affect the cell cycle?

Step 1: Find a primary research article

Break up this research question into two or three main concepts. Ignore extraneous words. Use 'study' as a search word to roughly narrow your results to primary research articles.

• Concept #1: cell cycle
• Concept #2: chemotherapy
• Concept #3: study

Step 2: Find supporting literature

Skim the study you found above. Add useful vocabulary. Remove the word 'study'. Limit to review articles. 

• Concept #1: cell cycle
• Concept #2: chemotherapy, cancer
• Concept #3: senolytic, senomorphic, senotherapeutic

• Even if the search engine you are using doesn't require you to enter boolean operators, it is still using them behind the scenes. It will help you to know the logic behind your search.
  .
• AND gives you results that include ALL of your concepts.
   
• OR gives you results that include ANY of your concepts.
  ​
• Essentially, you are searching:​

(cell cycle) AND (chemotherapy OR cancer) AND (senolytic OR senomorphic OR senotherapeutic)