On March 27th and March 28th the C. elegans Gene Knockout Project at OMRF was proud to sponsor five students for Jr. Scientist Day at the OMRF.

The students were introduced to model organism based research, the development of research resource projects and the basic methods employed on the gene knockout project.

The methods included culturing of the organism, the use of bioinformatics databases, PCR screening and agarose gel electrophoresis. Each student loaded PCR samples containing wild type and deletion mutant DNA PCR product. We then proceeded to look up the target gene on Wormbase; a C. elegans based bioinformatics resource.

The project staff enjoyed each of our sponsored students and encourages each student to consider us a resource for future questions about the work we do.

We appreciate the Putnam City School’s efforts in support of research at the OMRF.

The sponsored students were:

March 27th, Wendy Gramajo of Mayfield Middle School, Alex Oliver of Putnam City Academy and Laurel Persa of PC West HS.

March 28th, Kevin Alexander of Rollingwood Elementary and Stephen Edwards of Tulakes Elementary.