A huge congratulations are in order for Ariana Henriquez, Daxia Serrano, and Angelene Veloce on their acceptance into the Waksman Institute Summer Experience.
WISE is a two-week program that engages high school students in an authentic research project in molecular biology and bioinformatics. It focuses on the isolation, characterization, and DNA sequence analysis of genes from the duckweed ladolitia punctata, and how they compare to those found in other species. Duckweed is a fresh-water aquatic plant that is of great interest to the scientific community.
As a part of the program, the students will attend seminars conducted by Rutgers faculty and work in a college laboratory with professional instruction. Students will isolate unique fragments of DNA by conducting laboratory experiments including plasmid DNA purification, polymerase chain reaction, restriction digests, and gel electrophoresis. In addition, they will analyze gene sequences from these DNA fragments using the same bioinformatic tools used by practicing scientists worldwide.
Their analyses will then be submitted for publication on GenBank, the international repository of DNA sequences, that is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Education.