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June 1, 2017Community Outreach at The RNA Institute at UAlbany Helps High School Student Receive Special Award in Biomedical Excellence
As part of the concerted outreach efforts at The RNA Institute at UAlbany, Dr. Paul Agris provided an opportunity for Burnt Hills – Ballston Lake High School student Mary Hamilla to work in his lab. This collaboration is in conjunction with Burnt Hills – Ballston Lake High School’s ‘Science Research in the High School’ program with the shared aim to encourage students to interact with the scientific community.
Hamilla, who is completing her junior year of high school, joined Agris’ lab in January 2016. She is working on generating tRNA, an essential component for life in all cells, for further assays including antibiotics development as well as research on the genetic causes of type II diabetes. She’s also looking at how bacterial gene regulatory elements can enhance the production of tRNA.
Training with graduate student Ville Väre, Hamilla is using small pieces of genetic material called plasmids to allow production of large quantities of the tRNA genes in bacteria. After isolating the gene, she uses a variety of biochemical techniques to produce, as well as to quantitate and asses the purity of the tRNA. Recently, Hamilla was able to confirm she produced a large batch of pure tRNA.
“Mary has an incredible ability to pick up new techniques and process information.” Väre says of Hamilla’s work. I have been very impressed by her maturity and command of knowledge.”
“Ville provides assistance with any questions I have about procedure or theory. Agris Lab has a lot to offer in terms of training support and resources. I documented over 150 hours of lab time and gained the experience required by many schools for [college] freshmen to apply for research opportunities. I feel prepared and confident to explore scientific research as a career.” Hamilla shares of the mentor-based training she received at The RNA Institute.
Preparation begets confidence and Hamilla entered the ISEF affiliated Greater Capital Region Science and Engineering Fair held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in March. Her project entitled “Analysis of T7 RNA polymerase on different DNA plasmids’ was assessed by judges based on knowledge levels of topics presented for which she received the Albany College of Pharmacy-Biomedical Sciences Excellence Award – a prize of $20,000.
“Mary has shown true commitment to this project and I am very proud of her. I am so thankful Dr. Agris and The RNA Institute provided this incredible opportunity for her,” says Regina Reals director of research and chemistry teacher at Burnt Hills – Ballston Lake High School who oversees the Science Research program there. “Without supportive research scientists serving as mentors, programs such as ours would not exist.”
Hamilla will continue her work in Agris’ lab through June 2018. She has plans to attend college majoring in biochemistry and hopes to continue her research in microbiology.
