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
Changing in the Workforce in Medicine
Analysis of AAMC data regarding changes in the workforce over the last 20 years. Trends in gender, race, location, and number would be analyzed.
Biotech, Cancer, Neuroscience
Processing Available Cryo-EM Data
There are many open source datasets of images available that have been used to determine atomic structures of particles. A general idea might be to reprocess this data with different techniques/software to answer questions that have not yet been answered. This would be computationally expensive. Likely will require access to a computer with a strong GPU.
Biotech, Cancer
Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines: Discovery of a selective inhibitor of JAK1 JH2 pseudokinase and VPS34
A series of novel 3,6-di-substituted or 3-substituted pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines were prepared via a microwave-assisted approach that generated a broad array of derivatives in good yields (20–93%, ave. = 59%). The straightforward synthesis involved sequential treatment of commercially-available acetonitrile derivatives. Importantly, a simple yet novel compound was equipotent with the more synthetically challenging 3,6-disubstituted derivatives and exhibited a promising and unique selectivity profile when screened against a panel consisting of 403 protein kinases.
Biology, Cancer, Chemistry
Molecular Alteration Trends Associated with Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic cancer is one of the major causes of cancer related deaths worldwide. This type of cancer has a variety of common molecular alterations associated with the disease. This project will focus on utilizing publicly available databases in order to investigate unique trends in pancreatic cancer that could lay the foundation for further validation in a laboratory setting.
Cancer
The Immune System: Our Defense System To Infection
The student will investigate and learn the basics of how our immune system works to protect us from infection. The student can choose a specific pathogen, cell type or pathway to explore. The options are endless! These findings can be turned into a research project, be used toward developing a science fair project, or a fun and informative presentation or mini review article!
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
A review of CRISPR as a technology
This project will aim to create a review of CRISPR in terms of its scientific history, its applications, its evolution as a technology, and the technology that has branched from it. The final product would be a written review article intended to serve as a resource for all-things-CRISPR, its possible future directions, and possible drawbacks and improvements that may come with the technology.
Cancer, Neuroscience
Essentiality of Genes in Pancreatic Cancer
Certain genes are essential for all cancer cells to survive. However, some genes are only essential in certain cell type contexts. To figure out how to kill cancer cells of certain cell types, we can use publicly available data on the Broad Institute's Cancer Cell Line Dependency Map database. This database shows us which genes are essential across thousands of cancer cell lines. If we look at pancreatic cancer specifically, we can identify genes that are important for driving cell survival only in the pancreatic cancer context, which may be exploitable for cancer chemotherapies.
Cancer
Biomedical Device Design: Orthotics
Have an idea for a device you think might solve modern problems in medicine? Or maybe you see a solution to limitations in the devices we use every day. Learn how to identify design criteria, draft design blueprints, determine product relevance, perform patent searches, choose raw materials, and determine product relevance. Develop a product pitch and create a prototype!
Biology, Cancer, Engineering, Chemistry
The Development and Treatment of Cancer
Cancer is a collection of related diseases united by unregulated cell replication. Certain viruses, such as HPV, are considered oncoviruses, meaning they are cancer causing. Different types of cancer, and even different subtypes, have drastically different outcomes. For example, patients with HPV-mediated cancers are more sensitized to radiation, meaning lower doses of treatment may be equally effective as higher doses but with fewer side effects. In this project, students can pick a specific type of cancer and do a deep-dive on the mutation that causes the cancer, the treatment, and current/future therapies.
Biology, Cancer, Public Health
Biomaterial designs
You can pick a topic of your interest (e.g. degradable sutures, dental implants, hip prostheses) and learn more about how the biochemical and mechanical properties are taken into account in material design.
Cancer, Engineering
Potential Biomarkers for Head and Neck Cancers
The aim of this project is to review the literature pertaining to potential biomarkers for head and neck cancers (HNCs). The review will focus on identifying and evaluating the diagnostic and prognostic value of various biomarkers, including genetic, epigenetic, and protein-based markers. The findings of this project may have important implications for the development of personalized and targeted therapies for HNCs, as well as for improving patient outcomes and quality of life. This could be a blog, essay, podcast, short film or documentary, poem!
Biology, Cancer, Psychology
The Role of Immunofluorescence in Cancer Research
Learn the history and current uses of immunofluorescence in cancer detection, diagnosis, and the development of treatments. Explore the limitations and benefits of immunofluorescence in comparison to other methods, and share your findings in the format of an article, scientific review, or presentation.
Biology, Cancer, Engineering, Chemistry
Solving Medical Problems
Let's identify a problem in patient care and develop a device design or other solution to help address it. We will learn the basics of the design process including needs assessment, research, prototyping, and testing. Students can learn to use any tools they need, including but not limited to CAD, 3D printing, physical manufacturing methods, and Matlab. If you can dream it you can make it!
Cancer, Neuroscience, Engineering, Photography, Chemistry
Cancer research
You can pick a topic of your interest (e.g. certain type of cancer) and write a review article on the physiology, recent advances (e.g. immune therapy, nanoparticles for drug delivery etc) in treating this cancer.
Cancer, Engineering
Imaging Techniques for Brain Tumors
Distinguishing between Tumor Progression and Necrosis is a extremely difficult task for radiologists/neurosurgeons. There are several potential projects in this area, ranging from review papers to survey data analysis.
Biotech, Cancer, Neuroscience
Understanding how gene mutations cause neurological disease
The nervous system is the control center of the human body and is composed of the brain, the spinal cord and nerves. Injury or disease to the nervous system can impair normal functioning. There are hundreds of neurological disorders affecting brain development and function. Many neurological disorders are caused by gene mutations that can disrupt certain pathways and process that are critical for normal brain function, such as Huntington's disease and muscular Dystrophy. In this project you can: 1) Identify a genetic mutation that causes a neurological disorder and investigate clinical cases of patients with the disorder. 2) Does this neurological disorder have a treatment or a cure? Explore how pharmacological treatments and clinical trials work. 3) Interview a physician or scientist who studies a particular neurological disorder. Explore how scientist study this particular neurological disorder. Explore how physicians treat a patient with the disease. 4) Explore whether neurological disorders affect certain populations more than others (i.e. neurodegenerative disorders prevalent in geriatric populations
Cancer, Neuroscience
Science Communication on Twitter
The social platform Twitter has increasingly become a place where scientists can communicate their science to their community and the general public. In this project, we can create a sciencecomm account to share information on a topic in biology or chemistry. You'll gain skills in reading scientific literature, summarizing major findings, and communicating science to the general public.
Cancer
How does cancer develop resistance to therapy?
Why might a cancer treatment stop working? Cancer cells have many tricks up their sleeves when it comes to evading therapy. In this project, I will help you to read scientific articles in the literature, identify the major mechanisms of drug resistance, then write a review article for publication in a high school science journal. In the process you will learn about cancer research and gain skills in science writing.
Biology, Cancer
Drug therapies for cancer
Cancer has a major impact on society affecting millions of people each year. Researchers are working hard to understand, at a molecular level, the causes of cancer and using this knowledge to develop drug therapies. For this project, you will pick one or a few related cancer drugs on the market to research and understand biological how they work at a molecular level.
Cancer, Chemistry
