There are four Virtual Waksman Institute Summer Experience (vWISE) programs for 2021. Due to restrictions on students in the lab, each of these are virtual programs that engage high school students in an authentic research project in molecular biology and bioinformatics. They focus 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 2021 vWISE Programs:
- attend online seminars conducted by Rutgers faculty
- analyz gene sequences from these DNA fragments using the same bioinformatic tools used by practicing scientists worldwide.
- submitt 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.
January 2021 vWISE (1/25/21-3/25/21)
Spring 2021 vWISE (6/1/21-6/11/21, 4:00-5:30 PM and 7:00-8:30 PM)
June 2021 vWISE (6/21/21-7/2/21 meets 9:00-10:30 AM and 1:00-2:30 PM)
July 2021 vWISE (7/26/21-8/6/21 meets 9:00-10:30 AM and 1:00-2:30 PM)
Fall 2021 vWISE (9/27/21-11/17/21 meets 7:00-8:30 PM EDT on Mondays and Wednesdays)