Team:UCSC/COSMO

COSMOS Students

Determined to spread awareness, we wanted to expand our reach and further educate the public on the scientific basis of GMOs. Given our experience with the Greenpeace debate, we realized how vital it was that we promote active discussion with the public. Understanding our responsibility, we set our sights on educating the next generation. COSMOS, the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science, is a program that brings together the brightest young minds to provide intensive academic experiences for this next generation of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. We were very grateful for the opportunity to partner with COSMOS to deliver an educational presentation on synthetic biology, as well as host a fun, engaging experiment of our own.

We designed our synthetic biology presentation to address both the scientific foundation of genetic engineering, as well as to provide students with an intuition as to how this technology can be applied. From DNA to RNA to Protein, we explained each step of the Central Dogma and the significance of each molecular family involved. With this foundation, we dove into explaining how to utilize this information to design synthetic biology applications. An interactive portion for biofuel production provided the students with an opportunity to explore a challenging metabolic pathway and try to make the correct modifications necessary to produce larger quantities of ethanol; while remembering to provide the cell energy and avoid imbalance of reducing equivalents. We concluded with a discussion of our iGEM Erythritol project and were excited to see how quickly the students grasped the project’s design and purpose. The students intrigue and curiosity show through during the Q&A, and it was a rewarding experience for everyone on the team.

Following the presentation, we thought an exciting way to engage with the students was to provide all of the materials necessary for a strawberry DNA extraction protocol. The students began by putting their strawberries into a Ziploc and smashing the strawberry into a red mush. An extraction buffer consisting of salt, to denature nucleic acid-bound proteins, and soap, to lyse the cell wall and nuclear membranes, was added into the Ziploc bag. The strawberry slurry was placed into a filter and poured over with isopropyl alcohol (by the iGEM volunteers for this step!). Then Viola! The students picked up the strawberry DNA with a toothpick and boasted of their scientific prowess. We were all very happy to see the protocol, and the entire experience as a whole, go so well, and we were grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the creative and bright students of the COSMOS program.