Use the hyperlinks below to access the facilities of the Waksman Student Scholars Program.
 
08/09 Research Project

07/08 Research Project

06/07 Research Project

05/06 Research Project

The Waksman Challenge

Courses

Waksman Tutorials

Internet Resources

Previous Reseach Projects

The Waksman Student Scholars Program is designed help high school students learn modern molecular genetics by having them engage in genuine scientific research projects. It is a two-part program aimed at both teachers and students.

The Summer Institute
A teacher and two students from a maximum of 20 high schools commute to the Waksman Institute at Rutgers University in Piscataway, NJ daily for a month in July. There they learn about a research project in molecular biology. The projects change from year to year. Both the background material and the laboratory skills necessary to carry out the project are presented.

The Academic Year
Teachers and students return to their classrooms in September and begin working on the research project. Additional students are recruited. Some students earn Rutgers University credit by participating in a formal course. Some schools offer a research course for high school credit; others offer the research as an after-school activity. The students return to Rutgers for six meetings during the academic year. At the end of the year, in June, a forum is held where students present the results of their studies at a poster session.

In the course of these studies, students, teachers, and research scientists work together, using the basic principles of molecular biology and genetic engineering to try to solve this research problem. By actually doing science, teachers and students gain an understanding of how science operates.

06/07, 07/08 and 08/09 Research Projects
The WSSP research projects for the 2006/2007, 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 academic years focus on the genomic analysis of the brine shrimp Artemia fanciscana, and how the genes in this organism compare to other species. Students in the projects isolated and sequenced genes from the Artemia fanciscana. The sequences of these genes has never been determined before and this information will be deposited in the international sequence databases for the students and other scientists to use. Students in the program compared these sequences with genes from other eukaryotes to determine the evolutionary relationship of these organisms and the sequence conservation of specific genes. Click here to view Artemia fanciscana cDNA sequences that were isolated and analyzed by WSSP students and their teachers during the each year.

05/06 Research Project
The research project for the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 WSSP focuses on the genomic analysis of C. remanei, a nematode closely related to C. elegans, and how the genes in this organism compare to other species of worms and higher eukaryotes.

Students in the project will isolate and sequence genes from the C. remanei worm. The sequences of these genes has never been determined before and this information will be deposited in the international sequence databases for the students and other scientists to use. Students in the program will compare these sequences with genes from related worms and other eukaryotes to determine the evolutionary relationship of these organisms and the sequence conservation of specific genes. The genes were then tested to determine if they have an important role in the worm using RNAi experiments to inhibit the gene. RNAi's are double-stranded RNA that work by degrading homologous RNA's, thereby interfering with gene expression. Students introduced C. remanei double-stranded RNA's into a related worm to determine if they will target homologous (similar) RNA's. Conserved RNA's (shared by both worms) are likely to be products of genes that code for basic functions that are essential for survival.

Click here to view C. remanei genomic DNA sequences that were isolated and analyzed by WSSP students and their teachers.

Our Support
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0422902, 0733255, and 0737574. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of GE Healthcare. GE Healthcare has proudly supported the Waksman Scholars Program since 1998. Their involvement includes providing funds for student scholarships, supplying laboratory reagents and equipment, making their facilities available for the Waksman Forum, and, most importantly, donating the time of their scientists and staff.