Take the FDA Consumer Quiz

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How's your knowledge of health-related topics such as "personalized medicine," drug development, and "gene chips"? Find out by taking our quiz.

(Hint: The answers to all these questions can be found in the November-December 2005 issue of
FDA Consumer.)

Take any of our past quizzes

1. Metabolomics is a science that looks for metabolism changes by analyzing what part of the human body?

a. body fluids, such as urine, blood, and saliva

b. digestive system, including the stomach and intestines

c. skin cells called fibroblasts

d. hormones secreted by the adrenal glands

e. retina of the eye

2. What is a metabolite?

a. a large quantity of metal, such as lead, found in the body

b. a sports drink with a lot of nutrients

c. all the molecules involved in metabolism in a living organism

d. a unit of measure of light energy

e. a laser altered to emit a high-powered beam used in surgery

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3. About how much does it cost to develop a new drug?

a. $50 million

b. $300 million

c. $500 million

d. $800 million

e. $1 billion

4. How many chromosomes do most cells have?

a. 18

b. 23

c. 46

d. 62

5. Which of the following is not a goal of personalized medicine?

a. Giving consumers more effective medicine.

b. Eliminating the need to take a patient’s medical history.

c. Reducing the risk of adverse events.

d. Deciding on the appropriate dose.

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6. Which of the following is not an emerging science related to the way the body's cells work?

a. proteomics

b. genomics

c. economics

d. metabolomics

7. The roughly 35,000 genes in the human genome contain the recipes for about how many proteins?

a. 100,000

b. 2 billion

c. about 10,000

d. between 1 million and 5 million

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8. A gene chip is another name for a:

a. microarray

b. special computer chip so small it can travel throughout the body

c. a piece of a gene

d. genetic sequence

9. Tag-It is a device cleared by FDA to find genetic variations in what disease?

a. lung cancer

b. lupus

c. cystic fibrosis

d. breast cancer

10. Where is the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research located?

a. Rockville, Md.

b. Montgomery, Ala.

c. Hilo, Hawaii

d. Jefferson, Ark.

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Your Score is:

Scoring

9 to 10 points: Excellent! Go to the head of the class.
6 to 8 points: Not too bad. You can skip cleaning the chalkboard erasers today.
5 points and below: Oops! Stay after school and reread the appropriate chapters.

Go to the Answers Page

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