Lorenzo's Oil

Question 1

How old was Lorenzo when he was diagnosed?

Answer 1

5

Question 2

Who are Lorenzo’s parents?

Answer 2

Augusto Odone, Michaela Odone

Question 3

What is the disease that Lorenzo has?

Answer 3

Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD)

Question 4

What types of foods make this disease worse?

Answer 4

• red meat
• olive oil
• pizza
• spinach
• peanut butter

Question 5

Why does Lorenzo’s mother blame herself for his illness?

Answer 5

she was the carrier of the disease and it was passed on to Lorenzo.

Question 6

What are the symptoms of Lorenzo’s illness?

Answer 6

• blind
• deaf
• loss of muscle ability
• cannot talk/swallow
• Peratism

Question 7

How did Lorenzo’s parents find a treatment for Lorenzo?

Answer 7

they researched a lot

Question 8

How did Lorenzo’s Oil work?

Answer 8

sync model

Question 9

What was in Lorenzo’s Oil?

Answer 9

olive oil –> oleic acid

rape seed oil –> erucic acid

Question 10

Did the medical community help the Odones find a cute for Lorenzo or did they resist their efforts? Explain what happened. Do you understand why the doctors did what they did?

Answer 10

The doctors refused to help his parents find a cure in case the parents were wrong with their science. Yes, I understand, the doctors could lose their jobs.

Question 11

Why was the support group angry about the Odones efforts to help Lorenzo? Can you see their point?

Answer 11

The support group was angry because the Odones aren’t doctors and they could send off false hope to the other parents.

Question 12

Explain Augusto’s use of paperclips to represent the “good and bad” fatty acids. What did his dream help him to understand?

Answer 12

The paperclips represented the long chain of fatty acids, and his dream allowed understanding of competitive inhibition, one enzyme for two substrates.

Question 13

How come the erucic acid had to be made in another country?

Answer 13

No one in the USA would do it and the FDA did not approve of it.

Question 14

Why did the Odones have so much trouble getting Lorenzo’s oil made?

Answer 14

No one had the tools or the funds to make it.

Question 15

Would you do the same thing as the Odones if Lorenzo were your child? Why or why not?

Answer 15

Yes, I would because I would do anything to keep my child alive.

Question 16

Name an instance where Augusto used modeling to solve a scientific problem? Explain how modeling helped you understand what he was talking about.

Answer 16

Augusto used the paperclips and the sink to model. It helped to understand by manipulating the situation, and making it easier to understand.

Question 17

We can learn anything we want to. Most of us should regard ourselves as “lifelong learners”. How did Augusto and Michaela prove that they are lifelong learners?

Answer 17

They figured out how to cure Lorenzo. The Odones were just a regular family, Augusto being a banker and Michael being a house wife, when they started to research on Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) and fatty acids.

Question 18

As you reflect on this movie, how did Odones family use the Scientific method? Start with the problem statement and use examples from the movie to illustrate the steps.

Answer 18

The problem is Adrenoleukodystrophy. They set forth predictions on what Lorenzo’s outcome would be. Augusto and Micheala hypothesized together. They tested the Oil on Lorenzo. Lorenzo’s levels of fatty acid started to decline. Augusto was still doing research and he came to understand it by drawing a picture of the sink, using many different parts of the sink to explain the problem. He also understood it by using paperclips as the fatty acids. After this, they told the support group and at first they did not want it to go public in case of false hope.