Students use gene editing in class
Seneca Valley ninth-graders got a unique opportunity to use cutting-edge gene-editing technology in their science classes this week.
Students in Tom Lavelle’s and Jenifer McMurray’s honors biology classes used rare lab kits to change the genetic makeup of bacteria using revolutionary targeted gene-editing technology. The same technology is being used to find a cure for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Lavelle said.
“With cystic fibrosis, if you know where the defective gene is and you place it in a gene that works … This is the biggest hope for humanity with genetic diseases,” Lavelle said. “This has a lot of promise.”
Lavelle said the kits allowed students to use new CRISPR/Cas9 technology to precisely edit bacterial DNA. The students at Seneca Valley are the only ones he knows of in the region doing this kind of high-level work with gene editing.
Eight kits were purchased from The Odin, a small technology startup company based in San Francisco, for $1,215 thanks to funding from the Seneca Valley Foundation. Lavelle found the kits over the summer and tested one out before bringing it into the classroom.
With the new gene-editing technology, a protein called Cas9 “bites” into the DNA precisely where it needs to be edited, Lavelle said.
Before, gene editing was similar to a child playing pin the tail on the donkey while blindfolded, Lavelle said. The DNA cutting would take place in the general vicinity of where it is supposed to, but probably not on the exact target. CRISPR/Cas9 allows the blindfold to be taken off and the target to be reached with ease and precision, he said.
Using the kit, students were tasked with changing an innocuous strain of the E. coli bacteria to make it resistant to the antibiotic streptomycin.
Ryan Kelly, a ninth-grader, said it was neat to do an experiment that is so current with today’s technology. Classmate Katie Kamarec agreed, saying it was interesting to perform such a unique experiment.
“This is so new, and we get to use it,” Katie said.
On the first day of the lab, students grew the E. coli bacteria in Petri dishes. During the second day, the students performed the gene editing by mixing together the necessary ingredients, including DNA, Cas9 plasmid, calcium chloride and RNA plasmid.
They tested the effectiveness of their experiments on the third and final day. If the gene editing was successful, students found the E. coli bacteria growing in the streptomycin Petri dish.
Lavelle said the work the students were doing was fairly advanced, but they all grasped the complicated genetic processes at play.
“Nothing is too hard for them if you explain it,” he said.
