Elwood-John H. Glenn High School students in Dr. Kamhi and Ms. Regan’s AP Biology classes experimented with DNA during a recent field trip to the DNA Learning Center in Cold Spring Harbor.

The lab that the students participated in is part of a new AP Biology curriculum in which students were able to perform bacterial transformation, a process of inserting foreign genes into bacteria, on a harmless strain of E. coli.

The students performed bacterial transformation by inserting a gene from Jelly Fish that glows green into E. coli (a form of Genetic engineering). They worked with two genes. A gene called pGFP, which is a bio-luminescent protein that make them glow green and another gene that makes E. coli resistant to ampicillin.

“The students were taught the skills and carried out the experiment,” said Dr. Kamhi. “This topic covers the AP unit on genetics and genetic technologies. Both are very important topics for science in the future.”