Students at the all-girls high school Academy of Mt. St. Ursula dove into genetics and medical technology Wednesday at a special lab with nonprofit Engineering Tomorrow.
The girls worked in person with the non profit’s staff engineer Gerry Dawes, while simultaneously joining over 5,000 students from all over the country for a presentation via zoom with Dr. Viktoriia Kyrychenko, a Senior Scientist at CRISPR Therapeutics specializing in cell and molecular biology.
“It was inspiring to see students at Mt. St. Ursula engaging directly with the cutting-edge fields of genetics and bioinformatics, and have the incredible opportunity to hear from a leading scientist at CRISPR Therapeutics,” said Dawes. “Our interactive labs invite students to explore STEM careers they may not have otherwise considered by connecting the dots between the classroom and real-world challenges.”
Students learned about genetics, and how someone’s genes don’t just determine their eye color but can also be the key to understanding complex medical information and diseases. The lab introduced the intersectional field of Bioinformatics and used that information to “diagnose” two virtual patients that had genetic diseases using biological database platform UniProt, according to Engineering Tomorrow.
As knowledge about DNA and molecular biology have grown and technological advances have skyrocketed, a wealth of genetic data is available as well as the tools to analyze it. The field of Bioinformatics combined all these advancements and techniques to diagnose and treat genetically based medical conditions. The students at the Academy of Mt. St. Ursula got hands-on experience with cutting edge medical and genetic technology.
The lab taught students to use UniProt, a powerful, free, digital tool with access to genetic data, backed by renowned science organizations like the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) and many others.
The Academy of Mt. St. Ursula on Bedford Park Boulevard, was the first all-girls Catholic High School in New York State. Its mission is to “empower young women for leadership in society,” according to the school. So far, the school has graduated 8,000 young women and earned accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Education nonprofit Engineering Tomorrow focuses on reaching students from underrepresented backgrounds in engineering by partnering with expert, private sector engineers to create engaging labs that tackle current issues. The organization has a continued presence in Bronx schools.
