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Advanced biology students recently applied their newly-acquired knowledge of human genetics in a lab setting, using the sophisticated equipment at the DNA Dolan Learning Center in Lake Success, New York.

The trip provided a hands-on extension of the upper school students’ in-class exploration of DNA technology. The center, which is devoted entirely to genetics education, is an operating unit of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
     
Biology teacher Natalie Mayer described the day’s activities:  “We examined Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human mitochondrial genome (translation:  the differences in mitochondrial DNA between individuals).  First, the students swabbed their cheeks and isolated mitochondrial DNA from those cells. Then, each student replicated a small region of his/her DNA by a process called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.   PCR is an automated process that uses a thermal cycler to alternate between hot and cold temperatures, which enables researchers to produce millions of copies of a specific DNA sequence in approximately two hours.  Once the DNA was amplified, gels and computers were used to sequence (read) each person's DNA segment."  

Back at FSS, students used a computer program to compare their sequences with one another, as well as with different organisms and lineages throughout the world.

The students also got a glimpse of the practical application of science when they visited the adjoining blood lab, which tests blood from patients in all of the nearby Long Island hospitals.