This Week At CART – Ashley Jordan

Hello! My name is Ashley Jordan, and I am a senior at the Center for Advanced Research and Technology attending my second year. Last year I was in the Forensic Research lab, and this year I’m in the Biotechnology lab. Recently, we’ve been learning about the difference between RNA and DNA, and how your body produces the proteins it needs to keep you healthy.

I love attending CART because of the opportunities it provides me to further my interest in science, specifically chemistry. Originally, I wanted to work in the world of forensics, maybe as an FBI agent, but after doing countless crime simulations and data analysis in the Forensic Research lab, I realized being in the field wasn’t for me. I was more interested in the biology side of the research. I signed up for the Biotechnology lab during my senior year because I thought it would help me know for sure if majoring in Biochemistry for college would be a good fit for me, and it did! Biotechnology is about researching what your eyes can’t see, such as various bacteria and viruses. Last semester, we split into groups of 3-4 and went into depth about a biotechnology topic we found interesting. My group decided to research how we could cure HIV using a technology called CRISPR Cas9, which can basically edit segments of your DNA. CRISPR is originally an immune response in bacteria, and I found it interesting how scientists could take that response and alter it to be suitable to cure humans of proviral DNA diseases. Proviral DNA means the virus embeds itself into the DNA of the host, making it that much harder to cure with antivirals.

In my English class, we just finished literature circles. For that project, we broke off into groups and each group read a different book. I read The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. It was about a young boy who was the clone of a drug lord. The boy dealt with discrimination from his “family” and society because he was a clone, and clones were to be treated like live stock. It was interesting to read about the potential risks and benefits of bringing clones into the real world and looking at the ethics of how to treat a clone. Overall, I’d give the book 4 stars.

I love the Biotechnology lab and would recommend it to anyone interesting in curing diseases or learning about how microscopic organisms can have major effects on life. I’d also recommend CART to those who are interested in taking high school classes that correlate with their desired career.