Grant supports Meramec research efforts
BY: BRI HEANEY
Staff Writer
Last year, Meramec’s science department received a grant through the Howard Hugh’s Medical Institute to perform research on campus. Dr. Bob Harms and Dr. Thomas Peters are the two biology teachers in charge of the labs and classes.
“It’s really exciting,” said Harms, “to bring real world research to freshman students.”
This is the second year of the program; the professors had to receive special training when the project began.
“We are not virus experts and it’s about viruses, so we got some training at their facility in Baltimore,” says Harms.
The classes in which these labs are offered are Biology 140 and 141 and is reserved for these biology classes only. The full class is two semesters long.
“It’s for our biology majors, so students who are going into pharmacy, medicine, or research,” said Harms. “We just, for the first time, got to see them on the electron microscope over at Washington University at their imaging center and see them on the microscope. We spent an afternoon there and they gave us a tour of their facility.” Students involved are able to pick the name of the organisms that they discover.
In fact, the database displays the names of the organisms, said Harms.
At the end of the first semester, the viruses are sent off to a sequencing center. “The entire genome is sequenced. The second semester we get to see the genome, what the genes mean, and find out if it is related to any other viruses,” said Harms.
The atmosphere of student labs has changed due to this new program, said Harms.
“It’s really been nice, from my perspective,” said Harms. “Because usually students with labs are not excited for labs for two hours, whereas this has turned it around. People have their own project and want to see the answer, so it has really turned it around.”
