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South Mecklenburg High sophomore Jessica Goldfarb successfully completed the DNA Science pre-college program at the Dolan DNA Learning Center of Cold Spring Harbor (N.Y.) Laboratory.
According to the center, she’s the first Charlotte-Mecklenburg high school student to attend. Since 1988, the center has drawn top high school science students nationwide to participate in its genetic education summer programs.
The program provides extensive lab experience with the basic techniques of recombinant DNA, including DNA restriction and ligation, bacterial transformation and plasmid isolation. Participants perform the entire 20-hour lab sequence from the DNA Science text, with each lab serving as a stepping stone to the next.
Jessica, who completed Honors Biology as a freshman at South Meck, credits her teacher for sparking her love for biology and genetics.
“I never really cared much for science until I was in Ms. (Jessica) Murphy’s Biology class," she said. "She is a great teacher and I am really lucky to have had her for this class.”
