Common Sense for the Biochemist

File this under "why isn't there more of this going on in schools today?". At a genome sequencing conference held in Hilton Head, South Carolina last month, a group of students from the Sacred Heart Academy, an all Catholic girls school, in Hamden Connecticut presented their results from sequencing osteoporosis-related genes in bovine. The sequence data was good enough to even be included in Genbank. We really need more of this kind of thing happening in our high schools. The way this program is set up is very impressive. After hearing a presentation by this school at the conference in 1998, Agilent decided to donate a sequencer to the school. Coupled with a $20,000 dollar grant (okay, so raising this kind of money would be a little hard for most schools) and you have one heck of a high-school research program! And talk about a research program:

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.

How many high-schools do you know with a research focus?