Island Trees High School student Andrew Bacotti spent his summer attending a rigorous pre-college program at Brown University. This program is a two wee
k intensive research program in biomedicine. Bacotti was introduced to various topics and techniques in biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics. He studied the theoretical background of several techniques used in the lab and their application in current biomedical research. Some of the techniques included DNA extraction, agarose gel electrophoresis, restriction enzyme analysis and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Bacotti then graduated to even more difficult techniques and procedures aimed to analyze, characterize and isolate proteins. Some of the techniques he worked on involved protein extraction, sodium dodecyl sulfate, Bradford and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).
—Submitted by Jodie Spinale, High School Science Coordinator
