By COLLEEN FREYVOGEL
The Tribune-Democrat

High school students throughout the region are delving into the field of biotechnology.

Pictured (L to R) - Andy Holland, Jenna Fox, Kari Hostetter, Maria Pirl, Jill Benford, Heather Tressler, Eleas Weimer, Linda Henry (Biology Teacher), Jay McClatchey

Schools and businesses have teamed up for hands-on projects to encourage students to use their math and science skills outside the classroom, said Maureen Ryan, project manager for the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative.

“The idea is to bring more visibility to the biotechnology field,” she said.

Hilary Bollman, a senior at Shade High School , said the effort has offered her hands-on research experience before she attends the University of Pittsburgh , where she will major in pre-medicine, this fall.

“I just want to get some experience in the medical field,” she said. “It's a great opportunity for me to get my feet wet, and I hope our findings help (the institute).”

Bollman's group will study the ingredients and biological pathways of prescription drugs.

“We decided the findings would be interesting and relevant,” she said.

Bollman and other students from Shade and Windber Area high schools are working with Michael Liebman, executive director of the Windber Research Institute, to learn the proper tools for researching.

Each group and school will complete different projects and present their findings.

Liebman said the initiative is a good opportunity for local businesses to work with students. And, he said, administrators at the research institute want to provide learning opportunities for students.

“It gives us a chance to give back to the community, interact with the community and show them that we are a part of the community and not just located there,” Liebman said.

Robert Culp, a high school biology teacher from Windber, said his students are looking at trends and relationships between body-mass index and risk factors for obesity, diabetes and some forms of cancer.

Windber senior Kaylee Hollern participated last year, when students studied the relationship between obesity and diabetes.

They had to find data and then compare the rates for Cambria , Somerset and Lackawanna counties to national data.

This year, the data is provided from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington , Hollern said.

“We're doing everything (researchers) do when they do a research project,” she said.

Students in the biotechnology program at Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center have researched the next generation in cell-growth production.

Jarrod Lester, a Forest Hills junior, said that his group plans to present a poster and slide show of their findings to Lampire Biological Laboratories Inc. of Everett, the company that is working with students from the technology center.

Lampire also is working with Bedford Area and Everett Area school districts.

All of the students will present their findings at a science conference this summer.

Kayla Ahlborn, another Forest Hills junior, said the experience was a rare chance for high schoolers.

“I think it's great because it's more like college-based learning,” she said.

“It's definitely a challenge.”

Other school districts and businesses that are teaming up for Adventures in Biotechnology are Johnstown 's ITSI-Biosciences and Ferndale Area High School , and Applied Computational Technologies LLC in Somerset and Rockwood High School .



Colleen Freyvogel can be reached at 532-5055 or cfreyvogel@tribdem.com.