Thanks to Dr. David Ng at the Michael Smith Laboratories, students in PALM have been able to participate in knowledge outreach opportunities in the community. The partnership started in 2001, with three students from Dr. Ng’s first class teaching PATH547. In exchange for covering costs associated with molecular biology reagents and training platforms for our students, this partnership has created valuable teaching opportunities for our graduate students ever since. Emily Kamma, a PhD candidate in PALM, has been involved in the program for four years and shares some highlights of her experience.

For the past four years I have had the pleasure of working as a graduate academic assistant under the supervision of Dr. David Ng in the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (AMBL), the educational outreach arm of the Michael Smith Laboratories. Biweekly, alongside another PALM graduate student, I lead polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA fingerprinting workshops with visiting classes of grade 11/12 students from all over the Lower Mainland. Students isolate their cheek cell DNA and use PCR to amplify billions of copies of their DNA to detect the presence or absence of a common 300-base pair Alu polymorphism inserted in the tPA gene.

One of the major things that initially sparked my curiosity in science was when I participated in similar scientific outreach programs in high school. I discovered through the same type of DNA fingerprinting workshops that you can use simple experiments to answer big questions such as diagnosing genetic disorders or identifying suspects from hair left at crime scenes. As a result, I was excited by the teaching opportunity to work with students interested in real-world applications of scientific techniques they have only read about in textbooks or heard about in the news. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, students have been especially excited to learn the theory behind how PCR works and to perform the experiment hands-on. This field trip is also the first time most students held a micropipette, used a centrifuge, or ran agarose gel electrophoresis.

I feel rewarded by the opportunity to teach students one of the most powerful molecular biology techniques and perhaps even inspire them to pursue future studies or a career in science. I hope each student leaves the workshop with a little more excitement for science and a better understanding of DNA replication, PCR, and random science facts they can keep handy for the next trivia night!