Biomedical students splice DNA in projects

CHESAPEAKE — Graduating seniors from three Lawrence County school districts came together on Monday to take part in a lab that taught them about genetic engineering.

South Point, Dawson-Bryant and Chesapeake students enrolled in Project Lead the Way classes met at Chesapeake High School for the first annual Biomed Senior Lab Day, where they focused on recombinant DNA.

Justin Wine, biomed instructor for the program, said the students were given two types of E coli, one of which was antibiotic resistant.

He said the students then took out the gene that made the bacteria resistant to anti-bodies and put it into the regular sample, using restriction enzymes.

“This is our first big collaboration,” Wine said of the day’s work. “And all the groups got the results we wanted.”

Wine said the process, using CRISP technology, allows researchers to alter DNA sequences, and was recently featured on 60 Minutes.

Project Lead the Way offers STEM education courses in biomed and engineering programs to six Lawrence County school districts.