Students Experience `Real' Research At Coriell Institute

AUTHOR: REBECCA KRUMM, pp.21 Date: May 16,1994 A fundamental experience of the research scientist is that of discovery--of finding something new, or trying something new without knowing what the outcome will be. But most high school science students' experiences are a far cry from this ideal. Rather, cookbook experiments are the norm, with the goal of achieving the "correct" outcome. Some research institutions, however, are broadening students' horizons by offering summer internships that allow youngsters to work side by side with researchers. One such program is offered by the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, N.J., which brings about a dozen local high school and college students into the research labs each summer, and sends them home again with a new perspective on science, research, and career possibilities. It is enormously satisfying, says David Beck, president of the institute, to introduce a young person to the world of science. "When you catch someone's excitement, and they really become interested in science, that's a tremendously pleasing prospect," Beck says. Camden is a city with a large minority population, and the Coriell Institute is making a special effort to reach out to minority students. To multiply the effort, the institute has offered internships to local high school teachers, as well, so that the teachers can bring the experience back to their students. "When you're a student, even a college student in a lab course, things are really pretty well planned," says Beck. "You never quite see the excitement and intensity of not knowing how an experiment will turn out." David Rader, a junior at Northwestern University in Chicago who interned for two summers at Coriell, found the experience to be an eye-opening one. "I had always sort of pictured that scientists really knew what they were doing," Rader says. "They knew what it was supposed to be, but they needed to get it exactly, or they were confirming a theory, or something. But [the research at Coriell] was really very experimental, in just trying things and seeing what worked." By exposing students to the excitement of real research, Beck hopes to open them up to careers in science. "When I was coming up, in the days after Sputnik in the 1960s," says Beck, "there was a tremendous glow to doing research and getting into science in general, whether it was biomedical, physics, or whatever. That [glow is] gone, but the need to do science, the need for the next generation, is still there. "The need for new people, and especially the need to involve minorities in science, is stronger than ever." The Coriell Institute is known for its extensive cell culture collection. The Coriell Cell Repositories currently house three National Institutes of Health collections, as well as a cell bank for diabetes research. The institute was founded in 1953 by Lewis Coriell, a pioneer in tissue-culture techniques. In addition to the cell-culture facilities, the Coriell Institute includes basic research laboratories investigating cancer, AIDS, other aspects of the human immune system, and genetic disorders. Interns work in both areas of the institute, learning basic techniques in molecular biology, cell culture, and biomedical research. Student internships have been part of life at the institute from the very beginning, says its founder. The program started informally, with students occasionally asking to volunteer for the summer. Over the years it became more structured, and by the late 1960s, the institute was working closely with science teachers at several local high schools to recruit students for the program. The program suffered a setback in the 1970s, says Coriell, when restrictions in federal grants on which the institute depended specified that no children under the age of 18 be permitted to work in the labs, for fear of contamination from viruses and other organisms under investigation. After a hiatus of several years, however, the rules were relaxed and, gradually, the program began to grow again. In addition, Coriell points out, the very nature of the institute's work--maintaining extensive cell cultures free of contamination--requires an emphasis on laboratory hygiene. In fact, many safety practices now standard in biological research labs were pioneered by the institute, where the laminar flow hood was first developed. Scientists at Coriell agree that, although they must invest a significant amount of time training the interns, it is well worth it in terms of the satisfaction they get out of initiating the students to the joys of science. "Any time you are in an environment where you can be a guiding light for young people, where you can help them get interested in science, that's the benefit," says Marie Hoover, an associate professor at the institute. "What I like about having the interns in my lab is to have good communication with the young, budding researcher," says Subal Bishayee, also an associate professor. "When they come, they don't have much idea of what happens in the lab. I provide them with an opening." Making A Commitment An internship at Coriell involves a significant commitment on the part of the student as well as the researcher. Interns actively participate in the research taking place in the laboratory to which they are assigned, and, like "real scientists," must sometimes work more than an eight-hour day in order to see an experiment through to its conclusion. Tasks interns perform include western blots, cell cultures, protein assays and purifi- cation, and DNA extractions. Interns are often given a project that is their responsibility. Some interns have been authors on papers reporting on the research in which they participated. Student interns earn about $2,000 for their summer's work. Toward the end of the summer, the institute sponsors a symposium at which the interns present their work. All of the institute scientists, as well as the interns, are asked to attend. Throughout the summer, students are expected to attend research seminars and workshops, journal clubs, and other such events, although, as Beck notes, "they have a fairly intense amount of work, so they have to carve out time." Bishayee finds that after an intensive first week of training, interns become valued workers. "Once you allow someone to work in your lab, for the first few days you have to be constantly with them, so that they pick up the right techniques, and they don't unintentionally break any of the equipment," he says. "If you train them properly the first week, then the remaining seven weeks is a plus point." Gary Butler, an assistant professor at Coriell, notes that researchers must be willing to work with the interns to make the experience rewarding. "If you're going to take the responsibility of having a student in the laboratory," he advises, "you have to realize that you have to put out something for that student to make his or her stay beneficial to them. Otherwise, you're not doing much for them." Rader, who did his first stint at the institute just after graduating from high school, had been thinking about studying physics prior to his internship. But his work with Gary Butler, investigating the anti-cancer potential of a certain protein, changed his mind. "I had a lot of fun in the lab, just trying things and experimenting, so that really turned my attention toward biology," Rader says. Rader is currently a biology major with plans to go on to graduate school to study molecular biology or microbiology. Although none will be spending their summer vacation at Coriell this year, Beck is seeking funding to support high school teacher interns next year. Teachers, who have received a stipend of about $5,000 for the summer, he points out, are more expensive than students, and must be supported through outside grants. Teachers who have interned in previous years, however, are significantly broadening the institute's impact. "When you can reach a student, you can reach a student, and that's very good," says Beck. "But when you reach a teacher, you are reaching 40 or 60 students, and that's even better." Martin Weiss, who interned at Coriell in 1988, is a teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, a Camden school with a predominantly minority student population. At the time of his internship, Weiss was developing a class called "Introduction to Research" for seniors. He says that the program was invaluable in teaching him what was involved in original research, so that he could pass that experience on to his class. His students spend the year working on original research projects, and some enter their projects in local and regional science fairs. "It [the internship] helped a lot," Weiss says, "because now they win all the time." Each year, students from Woodrow Wilson bring home two or three prizes from the Thomas Edison Science Fair, which includes students from southern New Jersey. The winners go on to compete in the Delaware Valley Science Fair, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Last year, boasts Weiss, his students came back from the Delaware Valley Science Fair with five prizes- -the most in the history of the high school. For Weiss, the important thing in the Coriell lab where he interned was not all the molecular-biology techniques he learned- -and, he says, he learned plenty--it was more the methods of science. The scientific method is "something that is in every science book you ever wanted to see," he points out. But, he says, the students "do a chapter on it in the beginning and then they promptly forget it." By contrast, Weiss's students do use the scientific method--again and again, as they design their experiments, analyze their results, and design more experiments. The lack of role models in the sciences is broadly acknowledged as a serious barrier to bringing more minority students into science and research. The minority students who interview for the Coriell internships generally reflect this. "They have absolutely no role model," says Beck, "They've never seen anything like this [the Coriell labs] before." Beck adds, "In my view, that's why the teachers are so important, and why I'm going to work so hard this year to get money for the teachers in the minority schools to come and see this, because we can reach so many more students." Chantell Parks, a Camden High School senior who interned at Coriell last summer, found a role model in Marie Hoover, the Coriell scientist in whose lab she worked. Parks, an African American, was recently awarded a full, four-year scholarship to Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia. She plans to become a dentist, and is now considering pursuing research, as well, so she can "do the things that Dr. Hoover did." Parks believes that programs such as Coriell's are vitally important to increasing the numbers of minorities in science. "Sometimes minorities believe that they are not even cut out for the things researchers do," she says. "But when they're introduced to the things that I've been introduced to, it makes them think, `Oh, wow! I could do this, too! It's not that hard, and it's fun.'" For more information on the Coriell Institute's summer internship program, contact David Beck at: Coriell Institute for Medical Research, 401 Haddon Ave., Camden, N.J. 08103; (609) 966-7377. Rebecca Krumm is a freelance science writer based in Audubon, Pa.

Students Experience `Real' Research At Coriell Institute

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