2,893 Inspirational Passion Project Ideas
Turn inspirations into your passion project.
This collection of project ideas, shared by Polygence mentors, is meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.
- AI/ML
- Animation
- Arts
- Biology
- Biotech
- Business
- Cancer
- Chemistry
- Cognitive
- Computer Science
- Creative Writing
- Dance
- Dentistry
- Economics
- Engineering
- Entomology
- Environmental Science
- Ethics
- Fashion
- Finance
- Game Design
- Healthcare
- History
- Illustration
- Languages
- Linguistics
- Literature
- Math
- Medicine
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Nutrition
- Organizational Leadership
- Philanthropy
- Philosophy
- Photography
- Physics
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Public Health
- Quantitative
- Social
- Social Science
- Sports Analytics
- Statistics
- Surgery
How can we cure cancer?
Cancer is one of the worlds leading causes of death. Scientists are developing many new treatments, but how do these work, and will they be able to help is in the goal to cure cancer? In this project, students will learn how to read and analyze scientific literature on new methods of treating cancer. This can result in a paper or presentation detailing new methods and future directions of the field.
Cancer
How does socioeconomic status affect appendix surgery outcomes?
We are beginning to understand that socioeconomic status (SES) can affect many parts of a person's health. It would be interesting to see how SES affects a specific surgical procedure, such as appendix surgery. The data for this project can be collected in a variety of ways, such as from existing, published data. The student would read through and extract data from existing publications, and use that data to synthesize their paper. This paper could take a more qualitative approach, summarizing the current literature and pointing out interesting findings in existing research, or take a more quantitative approach by analyzing complications of appendix surgery by zip code (to correlate SES). Students will end up with a scientific research paper that can be published to journals and presented at various local and national conferences. They will learn skills of literature review, research study design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript review, and, if applicable, journal submission process.
Cancer, Surgery, Public Health, Medicine
Creative Media in Biology or Chemistry
This project will focus on learning how to make media (video/audio) using a free video editing program, where the topic of the creative piece will be centered on a fundamental topic in biology or chemistry. We would work together to narrow the scope of the topic so that the final piece (video and/or audio) is 5 min or less.
Cancer
Multimedia explanation of CAR-T
Although CAR-T therapy has shown promising results and has been approved by the FDA, many patients are yet unaware of what CAR-T therapy is and how it could help them. This project could be a multimedia (blog, website, slideshow, video, etc) way to explain CAR-T therapy to the non-scientist.
Biotech, Cancer, Engineering
Features of protein X associated with longevity
You select a protein (Protein X) which previous research has shown to affect an age-related disease or cancer (or another disease/trait that interests you). You are interested to see if long-living species may have evolved changes in this protein that affect lifespan. For your project, you will collect amino acid sequences for the protein from different species from publicly available databases, and conduct an analysis to see if there are particular amino acid changes associated with species lifespan.
Biotech, Biology, Cancer
Specific Aims Page
For a given hypothesis, we will work to craft a specific aims page detailing the experiments needed to support or disprove the hypothesis. We will focus on experimental flow, anticipating setbacks, and experimental design.
Biotech, Cancer, Engineering
Novel method for cancer treatment - ablation therapy
Alternative methods other than surgery to obtain local control for malignant diseases has been on the rise due to the minimally invasive nature and less complications. One way to obtain this is called ablation therapy which can use heat or electric field energy to treat cancer cells. In addition, ablations have shown to have an immune response that is favorable for cancer cell destruction. This project involves researching the immune benefits of ablation therapy and how it is applicable for cancer treatment.
Biology, Cancer, Surgery, Physics
Mitochondrial diseases: a review of current knowledge and future research
Mitchondrial diseases come in many forms and are rare. Many of these diseases do not have effective treatment and can be devastating. In order to guide future scientists in pursuing appropriate research on mitchondrial diseases, it is important to perform a literature review to see what current knowledge already exists and reveal gaps in the literature where future research must be performed. This paper can be a literature review or scoping review, which means that students would read through existing publications to understand the current state of the literature, and use what they've read to create their scientific research paper. Students will end up with a scientific research paper that can be published to journals and presented at various local and national conferences. They will learn skills of literature review, research study design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript review, and, if applicable, journal submission process.
Cancer, Surgery, Public Health, Medicine
Debunking Science Myths
Claims about genetics, cancer prevention, and cancer treatment can spread quickly on social media. Take a look at some of the content being shared in these arenas, then review the scientific literature to determine how true these are. Create a your own video, podcast, or essay where you present the data in a clear and engaging way to a general audience.
Biology, Cancer
The role of the immune system in multiple sclerosis
This project would involve studying the role of different immune cells involved in the disease multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease, which means the immune system is attacking the central nervous system because it thinks it is an invader. This project would involve identifying the types of immune cells involved in this attack against the central nervous system, and understanding the roles each of them play in either protecting or attacking the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerve.
Cancer, Neuroscience
Vaccines of the Future
In this project, students will explore the intricacies of vaccine design and how to build better vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer. Students will develop an understanding of the following: What are the components of a vaccine? What are the different vaccine platforms currently being studied and their advantages/disadvantages? What are the key differences between the vaccines we develop to prevent infectious diseases and therapeutic cancer vaccines?
Cancer
DNA Damage and Cancer
It is well known that damage to our genomic information, or DNA, can eventually lead to the formation of tumors and cancer. On a basic scientific level, how our cells sense and respond to sources of genomic stress determine the extent of DNA damage. In this project, we will pick a DNA repair pathway of your choosing and dissect how it is tied to cancer, and discuss current therapeutics to try to mitigate further damage. Your findings can be presented as a slide show, review paper, podcast, animation or any other method interesting to you.
Biology, Cancer, Chemistry
Gene editing as a treatment for sickle cell disease
Sickle cell anemia is a debilitating disease that causes patients excruciating pain, among many other symptoms. Patients with sickle cell disease often have shorter life spans than healthy people. Interestingly, sickle cell anemia is caused by a single nucleotide mutation in the DNA. This has led researchers to try to cure the disease by fixing the mutation on a genetic level using a relatively new technique called CRISPR. This technique allows us to make very specific edits to the DNA that can result in a lifelong cure. Writing a review on this topic will provide you with a thorough understanding of many aspects of genetic diseases and gene editing approaches and gives you the opportunity to publish in a journal like Emerging investigators (or others)
Biology, Cancer
CRISPR Ethics
CRISPR is already widely adopted by the research community as a versatile tool able to make specific genetic changes. We expect that soon enough CRISPR is going to be used as a cure for diseases such as sickle cell in which a small change in DNA is all that is needed. With so many possibilities in how CRISPR can be used, we must also think about the ethics of using this tool. Some questions that can be addressed include: - An analysis of the ethics surrounding genetic editing of embryos (germline editing) - A comparison of CRISPR editing to already-used technologies such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or preimplantation genetic diagnosis - Looking into which diseases that are currently under investigation for CRISPR treatment or could stand to gain benefit from CRISPR editing
Cancer
Immunotherapy as a treatment for cancer
Ever since scientists discovered that the immune system is capable of fighting cancer, treatments harnessing its power have been developed. One of the main cell types responsible for fighting tumors are T cells. Researchers have been successful in making T cells from a patient specific for the tumor. These treatments are called CARs (chimeric antigen receptors) and have been very successful, especially against blood cancers (such as leukemia). Another potential treatment is to treat patients with immune checkpoint blockade, such as anti-PD1 or anti-CTLA4. When T cells are present in the tumor for an extended period of time, they increase the expression of receptors (such as PD1 and CTLA4) that can decrease T cell function and make them less capable of destroying tumors. Immune checkpoint blockade can reduce this negative signaling, making T cells more functional. Writing a review on this topic will provide you with a thorough understanding of many aspects of immunology and gives you the opportunity to publish in a journal like Emerging investigators (or others)
Biology, Cancer
Project 2: The Book of the Dead
Did you know that there are many ways for cells to die? Why is cell death important for health and disease? The goal of this project is for students to research the fascinating biology of cell death and create their own blog, website or 'zine about cell death. This project will teach students the basic principles of cellular and molecular biology, scientific communication, and information design. Students will gain experience creating and analyzing scientific data and visuals, and will learn how to present complex scientific ideas in an accessible manner. This project will help build skills important for future studies in both the humanities and STEM fields.
Biology, Cancer
Proteins and Enzymes, Natural and Designed:
Proteins are one of the primary types of molecules that make up your body. For example, collagen in your skin and keratin in your hair and nails are both proteins. Enzymes are a special kind of protein that perform chemical reactions in your body. In this project you will explore different types of naturally occurring proteins and enzymes and learn how their chemical structure allows them to perform their functions. In addition, you'll learn about efforts to design artificial proteins for bio-engineering and therapeutic purposes. You will also learn how to use the protein structure viewing software pymol, and use this software to produce a primarily graphical (or video) final project explaining how a protein's structure allows it to perform its desired function.
Biology, Cancer
Building a Blood Vessel
Use online graphics to illustrate how a blood vessel forms. For this project, we will complete a literature search together to understand what is known about blood vessel growth. Then, you will utilize this information to generate a graphic with no words to demonstrate how the vasculature forms. The goal of this project is to explain science without using text and therefore make it more available to a larger community.
Biology, Cancer
Literature review on mitochondrial membrane dynamics
Mitochondria is an incredible dynamic organelle known to fuse with each other to mediate multiple different signaling pathways. The role of the mitochondrial structure in cell fate and metabolism is still relatively unknown to many cell biologists. In this project, student will review the currently published research articles on this topic, analyze reported data, find any discrepancy that exists between different papers, and formulate a novel hypothesis.
Biology, Cancer
Trash Talk: Ways to Reduce Laboratory Waste
Every year, laboratories produce 12 billion pounds of plastic waste. But, labs need to use sterile equipment like pipets and gloves. An interesting project would be to investigate ways that labs can reduce waste, like using glass pipets and recycling gloves. Or investigating what we do with all the masks used in COVID-19 and writing a report on whether fabric masks are actually less protective.
Cancer, Environmental Science
