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Catholic Schoolgirls Unravel
DNA
By Michael D. O'Neill, Wired
Nov. 02, 2005
HILTON HEAD, South Carolina --
There were many big-league DNA scientists at the annual
genome sequencing conference held here last month, but no
one stood out more than a slight high school teacher in
religious habit towing five of her students through the
imposing crowd of genetics pioneers with a quiet grace.
The unlikely delegate was
Sister Mary Jane Paolella, of Sacred Heart Academy, an
all-girls Roman Catholic high school in Hamden, Connecticut.
She wasn't here on a sightseeing trip. Paolella showed up
with her students to make an official presentation of DNA
sequencing data that her honors biotechnology class
generated from genes associated with osteoporosis.
Paolella's been bringing her
students here for eight years. The point, she says, is to
give her class the opportunity to rub elbows with top
scientists working at the cutting edge of research --
luminaries like Craig Venter, who led the private effort to
sequence the human genome, and Dr. Hamilton Smith, who won
the 1978 Nobel Prize for his work on DNA-cutting enzymes.
She credits the experience for inspiring more and more of
her students to pursue careers in traditionally
male-dominated scientific fields.
"We have been working on yearly
projects since 1998 and have gradually increased the science
offerings at our school since the early 1990s," says
Paolella. "The number of students who have entered the
science fields has increased. More graduates have completed
or are presently in medical school; some are pursuing
M.D./Ph.D.s, and some are scientists today or practicing in
a health-related field."
Scientists who've encountered
Paolella's students and graduates describe the experience
with appreciation bordering on awe. David Kaplan, chairman
of Tufts University's biomedical engineering department,
recalls being approached three years ago by Sacred Heart
graduate Tara Cocchiarella, who boldly asked for a job in
his laboratory in her freshman year at the university. After
grilling her on her knowledge of biotechnology and DNA
science, he wound up offering her a position on the spot.
"It's unusual for us to see
students coming in as freshmen with that much lab experience
and appreciation for what's involved," Kaplan says. "It made
it easy for us to encourage Tara to come into the lab and to
roll up her sleeves and get started."
"Sister Mary Jane is a really
impressive character," says Keith O'Neill, who manages
special sequencing projects at the Broad Institute. "She
does all of this great work so quietly and so understatedly
-- almost as if this all happens at every high school. And
of course it doesn't -- it's the complete opposite. This is
really a unique team and facility that she's put together."
Much of Sacred Heart's
reputation has come through the school's presentations at
the prestigious Hilton Head conference. At the first meeting
the school attended in 1998, the Sacred Heart presentation
caught the attention of Michael Hunkapiller, then president
of Applied Biosystems, the company whose technology was used
to sequence the human genome. That contact led to the
company donating an automated DNA sequencer to Sacred Heart.
It was this instrument the school used to generate the
osteoporosis data this year.
Paolella emphasizes that her
role is that of mentor and that her students do all the DNA
sequencing work.
The DNA sequencing project was
part of Sacred Heart's campuswide, multidisciplinary effort
focusing on the examination and understanding of
osteoporosis, and involving every student in the school. The
effort is funded by a $20,000 grant from the Vernal W. and
Florence H. Bates Foundation.
In awarding the grant, a Bates
Foundation trustee noted in a press release, "I knew
immediately that Sacred Heart Academy was the perfect
fit.... They have an outstanding and well renowned science
department, having done incredible work in the gene
discovery lab and in biotechnology, and have made amazing
use of grant money in the past."
Paolella believes that the
study of osteoporosis is an especially appropriate
undertaking for an all-girl school, particularly in light of
a 2004 report from the U.S. Surgeon General predicting that
by 2020, half of all Americans over age 50 will be afflicted
with the disease unless greater measures are taken to combat
it.
"And 80 percent of those
affected will be women," says Paolella. "This report came
out after right after we had received confirmation that our
osteoporosis grant would be funded."
In the DNA project, the
students first did extensive research to select three genes
that have been associated with osteoporosis in humans and
that might be likely to have counterparts in the cow. They
chose the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR), the calcitonin
receptor gene (CALCR) and the collagen receptor gene
(COL1A1).
The students then set out to
see if they could identify the corresponding genes in cow
DNA by using sequencing and analysis techniques that they
had learned from Paolella. The bovine genome had not been
completely sequenced at that time, but was, and is, the
subject of an ongoing international genome sequencing
effort.
With a lot of hard work, the
students were eventually successful in obtaining sequence
data for two (CALCR and COL1A1) of these three genes in the
cow DNA. Their sequencing data was so good that it was
accepted for inclusion in the National Institutes of
Health's genetic sequence database GenBank, an annotated
collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.
"Beautiful data," comments
Cheryl Heiner, a professional DNA sequencing scientist who
was a co-author of the 2001 Science article describing the
sequencing of the human genome, and also of the 1986 Nature
article describing the first automated DNA sequencer.
"Presenting to the scientists
was an amazing experience," says student Megan Treichel.
"They were all so interested in our work and in giving us
suggestions for the future."
The Sacred Heart students were
clearly proud of their achievement, and a number of them say
they're now seriously considering careers in science-related
fields. "This has been such an incredible experience for
me," says Brianne Puklin. "I am planning a career in
engineering, and this project has helped me to improve my
problem-solving skills."
"This experience has fueled my
passion for science and inspired me to continue my study of
biotechnology in the future," says Sacred Heart student
Emily Panza, who is determined to become an FBI profiler.
Paolella says the biggest
highlight for all her students at the Hilton Head meeting
was the opportunity to meet and discuss their work with
professional scientists -- a sentiment echoed by her
students.
But she adds that the
osteoporosis study has had other benefits for her students,
too. "They are all drinking a lot more milk," Paolella says.
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