In our Upper School Biological Design Class with Science Teacher Paul Zahller, students are testing out gene editing. If you stepped into class last week, you would have seen students changing a single gene in a bacterium that controls the bacterium’s ability to move sodium in and out of the cell. “Because we edited its DNA,” shared Jack Bay ’20, “it was able to survive in an environment with levels of sodium which would normally be uninhabitable for that species of bacteria.”
This is the second time that MICDS students are performing gene editing in class. “It is very advanced biological technology for high school students,” stated Mr. Zahller.
“I think it’s great that we’re the first high school to do gene editing anywhere,” Bay exclaimed, “and I think it’s really cool that we’re getting hands-on with such a revolutionary technology. The idea that we’re able to alter every aspect of any living organism is pretty crazy, and we’re doing it in our class.”
