Download USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo 2012

Montgomery College is once again participating in the USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo 2012.
The festival will take place Saturday April 28 (from 10:00AM to 6:00PM) and Sunday April 29 from
(10:00AM to 4:00PM). It will be at the DC Convention Center. The college’s booth is called “Eerily
Glowing Green Bacteria” and will focus on genetic engineering and DNA tools. The festival is free to the
public. Volunteers are still needed! Volunteers to man the booth can contact Barbara Hoberman at
[email protected].
Eerily Glowing Green Bacteria
Powerful molecular tools are now applied in wide-ranging aspects of
biology - from curing diseases and significantly extending the average life
span of human populations, to constructing and organizing the
evolutionary ”Tree of Life”. You will use some molecular biological
knowledge of DNA and use some of its powerful tools to answer the
question “How can a gene from a jellyfish make bacteria and fish glow?”
The answer lies in creating an artificial genetically engineered piece of
DNA called a plasmid (pGLO). You will load and run an agarose gel with
the pGLO plasmid and observe eerily glowing bacterial cells and glowfish.
Did you know that scientists can also use molecular biology tools to
benefit society. For example, a gene for insulin production in humans can
be inserted into bacterial cells which can in turn produce human insulin
on a large scale. Have you ever marveled at the biological diversity here
on earth? Molecular biology techniques can be used to establish
relationships among all organisms by sequencing their DNA in order to
insure the survivability of the different species in their ecological
environments.