Dominette, the cow whose DNA is being sequenced for the international bovine genome sequencing project, was provided to Sacred Heart Academy by the USDA. The DNA was used as a control in the school's project. View Slideshow 
HILTON HEAD, South Carolina -- There were many big-league DNA scientists at the annual genome sequencing conference held here last month, but no one stood out more than a slight high school teacher in religious habit towing five of her students through the imposing crowd of genetics pioneers with a quiet grace.
The unlikely delegate was Sister Mary Jane Paolella, of Sacred Heart Academy, an all-girls Roman Catholic high school in Hamden, Connecticut. She wasn't here on a sightseeing trip. Paolella showed up with her students to make an official presentation of DNA sequencing data that her honors biotechnology class generated from genes associated with osteoporosis.
Paolella's been bringing her students here for eight years. The point, she says, is to give her class the opportunity to rub elbows with top scientists working at the cutting edge of research -- luminaries like Craig Venter, who led the private effort to sequence the human genome, and Dr. Hamilton Smith, who won the 1978 Nobel Prize for his work on DNA-cutting enzymes. She credits the experience for inspiring more and more of her students to pursue careers in traditionally male-dominated scientific fields.
"We have been working on yearly projects since 1998 and have gradually increased the science offerings at our school since the early 1990s," says Paolella. "The number of students who have entered the science fields has increased. More graduates have completed or are presently in medical school; some are pursuing M.D./Ph.D.s, and some are scientists today or practicing in a health-related field."
Scientists who've encountered Paolella's students and graduates describe the experience with appreciation bordering on awe. David Kaplan, chairman of Tufts University's biomedical engineering department, recalls being approached three years ago by Sacred Heart graduate Tara Cocchiarella, who boldly asked for a job in his laboratory in her freshman year at the university. After grilling her on her knowledge of biotechnology and DNA science, he wound up offering her a position on the spot.
"It's unusual for us to see students coming in as freshmen with that much lab experience and appreciation for what's involved," Kaplan says. "It made it easy for us to encourage Tara to come into the lab and to roll up her sleeves and get started."
"Sister Mary Jane is a really impressive character," says Keith O'Neill, who manages special sequencing projects at the Broad Institute. "She does all of this great work so quietly and so understatedly -- almost as if this all happens at every high school. And of course it doesn't -- it's the complete opposite. This is really a unique team and facility that she's put together."
Much of Sacred Heart's reputation has come through the school's presentations at the prestigious Hilton Head conference. At the first meeting the school attended in 1998, the Sacred Heart presentation caught the attention of Michael Hunkapiller, then president of Applied Biosystems, the company whose technology was used to sequence the human genome. That contact led to the company donating an automated DNA sequencer to Sacred Heart. It was this instrument the school used to generate the osteoporosis data this year.
Paolella emphasizes that her role is that of mentor and that her students do all the DNA sequencing work.
The DNA sequencing project was part of Sacred Heart's campuswide, multidisciplinary effort focusing on the examination and understanding of osteoporosis, and involving every student in the school. The effort is funded by a $20,000 grant from the Vernal W. and Florence H. Bates Foundation.
In awarding the grant, a Bates Foundation trustee noted in a press release, "I knew immediately that Sacred Heart Academy was the perfect fit.... They have an outstanding and well renowned science department, having done incredible work in the gene discovery lab and in biotechnology, and have made amazing use of grant money in the past."
Paolella believes that the study of osteoporosis is an especially appropriate undertaking for an all-girl school, particularly in light of a 2004 report from the U.S. Surgeon General predicting that by 2020, half of all Americans over age 50 will be afflicted with the disease unless greater measures are taken to combat it.
"And 80 percent of those affected will be women," says Paolella. "This report came out after right after we had received confirmation that our osteoporosis grant would be funded."
In the DNA project, the students first did extensive research to select three genes that have been associated with osteoporosis in humans and that might be likely to have counterparts in the cow. They chose the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR), the calcitonin receptor gene (CALCR) and the collagen receptor gene (COL1A1).
The students then set out to see if they could identify the corresponding genes in cow DNA by using sequencing and analysis techniques that they had learned from Paolella. The bovine genome had not been completely sequenced at that time, but was, and is, the subject of an ongoing international genome sequencing effort.
With a lot of hard work, the students were eventually successful in obtaining sequence data for two (CALCR and COL1A1) of these three genes in the cow DNA. Their sequencing data was so good that it was accepted for inclusion in the National Institutes of Health's genetic sequence database GenBank, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.
"Beautiful data," comments Cheryl Heiner, a professional DNA sequencing scientist who was a co-author of the 2001 Science article describing the sequencing of the human genome, and also of the 1986 Nature article describing the first automated DNA sequencer.
"Presenting to the scientists was an amazing experience," says student Megan Treichel. "They were all so interested in our work and in giving us suggestions for the future."
The Sacred Heart students were clearly proud of their achievement, and a number of them say they're now seriously considering careers in science-related fields. "This has been such an incredible experience for me," says Brianne Puklin. "I am planning a career in engineering, and this project has helped me to improve my problem-solving skills."
"This experience has fueled my passion for science and inspired me to continue my study of biotechnology in the future," says Sacred Heart student Emily Panza, who is determined to become an FBI profiler.
Paolella says the biggest highlight for all her students at the Hilton Head meeting was the opportunity to meet and discuss their work with professional scientists -- a sentiment echoed by her students.
But she adds that the osteoporosis study has had other benefits for her students, too. "They are all drinking a lot more milk," Paolella says.
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