Girls Inc Explores Biochem and Molecular Biology with Prof. Vierling

Biochemistry and molecular biology professor Elizabeth Vierling in the lab with students Stella Cabrera (left) and Luz Acevedo (right)

Professor Vierling, Senior Nathen Bopp and Lab Technician Stephanie Craig worked with nine young students, ages 13 to 15, from Girls Inc. for two days.  Students collected plant samples, extracted proteins and separated them by electrophoresis to observe the major enzyme involved in carbon fixation in photosynthesis. The students also learned about the size of the human and different plant genomes and the relationship between DNA, RNA and protein. They had the opportunity to observe diverse plants and plant parts under dissecting microscopes and to build paper models of DNA and tRNA. The lab was conducted in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology undergraduate research laboratorues in the ISB building on the UMass campus.

For more information see http://www.umass.edu/gateway/feature/selling-stem