KDS Students Explore Biotechnology

The Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment Biology classes at KDS DAR High

School, led by their teacher Ashley Weems, have spent the last month studying

molecular genetics, gene expression, and biotechnology. As a part of this unit, students attended a field trip to Hudson Alpha Institute of Biotechnology where they learned about the genetics of cancer and completed a gel electrophoresis lab.

The students later performed a genetic engineering lab on campus where they used a plasmid to transform E.coli bacteria. The students put a gene from a jellyfish into the bacteria using this method. The newly incorporated gene allows the bacteria to glow under UV black light.