Thank You For Funding

Dear Parents’ Association,

I just wanted to update you on the wonderful ways my “Nature of Cancer Research” class of students are using the $1000 my proposal was awarded. Please refer to the attached pictures of students working with the lung cancer kits and their own student-driven inquiry experiments!

With your grant, we purchased a number of prepared kits to demonstrate how cancerous tissue can be detected and diagnosed through experimentation – micro-array analysis and Sanger sequencing. Both kits were well received. Even though they were mere simulations they offered the students the opportunity to experiment and evaluate the results within the context of a certain sub-type of lung cancer.

Your donation makes a difference

As the semester winds down the students are now implementing the prior months of research and collaboration toward actual cancer-related, controlled experiments. Some of the more popular variables have been using bacteria, yeast or human cheek lining buccal cells that have been supplemented with antioxidants such as vitamin C before being exposed to harmful UV light, hydrogen peroxide etc. Eventually the students will evaluate how these organisms respond at the level of altered gene expression that triggers either DNA damage repair or apoptosis (programmed death).

Thank you so much for the funding of these activities; I am an ardent believer that students, who learn through experimentation, enjoy a richer experience.

Sincerely,
Jason Econome
Research Coordinator