Teen Science Cafe – Nematodes and Numerics: Worming Your Way Through the Genome

FREE and OPEN to Junior Academy of Science members and middle and high school students. Advance registration for Junior Academy members ONLY through Tuesday, April 5. Register below. General registration opens April 6.

To join the Junior Academy of Science, or to find out more about the benefits of membership in the Junior Academy, click here.

St. Louis Community College at BRDG Park, 1005 North Warson Road, St. Louis, MO 63132  + Google Map

5:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Dinner
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm: Presentation & activities

Featured Cafe Presenter: Elizabeth (Betsy) Boedeker, Senior Research Scientist, Contract Research Organization Coordinator, St. Louis Community College’s Center for Plant and Life Sciences at BioResearch and Development Growth (BRDG) Park

Learn about bioinformatics and genetics in this interactive cafe with a puzzle activity that demonstrates genomic sequencing.

Meet C. elegans (a model organism!) and learn how scientists use this small, primitive nematode to research higher organisms such as ourselves! View wild to mutant strains of C. elegans through a stereoscope. Explore how scientists are using genetics and RNA interference to examine diseases and learn more about how they function in order to enable more effective and targeted treatments.

Through a simple exercise, you’ll explore the growing field of bioinformatics– the application of computer science, math, and statistics to understand biological data. And you’ll travel further along the bioinformatics trail by exploring the types of resources used online to examine genomes, as we worm our way through this fascinating Teen Cafe on the science of genomics!

Nematodes and Numerics: Worming Your Way Through the Genome is a special Year of the Genome partnership presentation of The Academy of Science – St. Louis and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), with support from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH).

Visit the National Institutes of Health NHGRI and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History exhibit, Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code on-line.