Two former Summit Technology Academy students who completed Project Lead the Way Biomedical Innovations program were recently published in a peer-reviewed, online, journal. Isaac Henderson, 2017 graduate of Center Place Restoration School, and Jake Renetzky, 2017 graduate from Lee’s Summit High School, completed the synthetic biology research as part of the second semester curriculum at Summit Technology Academy.
They modified e.coli to produce an enzyme that will produce salicylic acid, a common pain relieving chemical. The article is published in BioTreks at http://biotreks.org/e201709/. The experiment was possible because of the knowledge and assistance from Dr. Kevin McCormick and Peggy Hinzman, both instructors at Summit Technology Academy. The funding for the project was provided by Summit Technology Academy.
BioTreks is the first international synthetic biology journal to be authored and reviewed by high school students. The journal is intended to give participating students the valuable experiences of writing and evaluating scientific papers, while offering them opportunities to share their own synthetic biology ideas, techniques and results in a professionally edited, online publication.
Every April, new journal content is presented and reviewed at an online conference that is hosted on Breezio and attended by students, mentors and professional biologists from around the world. Breezio’s dynamic conference environment gives participants the opportunity to ask each other questions about their work and suggest improvements prior to publication. More importantly, the event offers students and mentors opportunities to build professional connections that will support their research in coming years. Following the conference, students work with journal staff to finalize their manuscripts, graphics and videos for publication in the annual online issue of the journal. Participation is free and journal content is available to the general public without subscription.