Summer SAVY 2018: Session 1, Day 4 – Dabbling with DNA, Miss P (Rising 3rd and 4th)
Greetings from Dabbling with DNA!
Today, we were molecular biologists. This is the area of biology that I study and do my research in, so I was very excited for today! After learning the Central Dogma of Biology, we took a field trip to the VANTAGE facility at Vanderbilt University. This facility sequences DNA and is used by many research laboratories at Vanderbilt, including mine! We were able to see the machines that sequence DNA samples, as well as how DNA is extracted from patient samples and stored in a special freezer that has a robot.
Our experiment for today focused on DNA mutations and what the downstream effects are. We used a special website (http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs/BL_26/BL_26.html) to build mutated sequences based on a given mutation rule. We further discussed the Central Dogma of Biology (can your young scientist explain the concept to you) and the types of mutations that can occur. Can your young scientist explain what can happen with a point or frameshift mutation?
Finally, we started an activity for the Open House tomorrow. I hope you all will be able to attend because we have some awesome demos and mini experiments as examples of what we did this week. I am so excited to get to meet the parents that can attend.
-Ms. P
