The 2020 Waksman Institute Summer Experience (WISE) were two one-week virtual programs (6/22/20-6/26/209 and 7/27/20-7/31/20) that engaged high school students in an authentic research project in molecular biology and bioinformatics. It focused on the DNA sequence analyses of genes from the duckweed Landoltia punctata, and how these compare to those found in other species. Duckweed is a fresh-water aquatic plant that is of interest to the scientific community. A video of an overview of the research project can be found here. High school students who were in the 2020 vWISE Program:
- attended online seminars conducted by Rutgers faculty
- analyzed gene sequences from these DNA fragments using the same bioinformatic tools used by practicing scientists worldwide.
- submitted their vetted DNA sequence analyses for publication on GenBank, the international repository of DNA sequences, that is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Education (NCBI).
Each sequence that is published in the GenBank database acknowledged the student by name.