Outreach Activities. This year the Genomic Analysis Lab was involved in many different outreach activities. In 2012 we hosted Frank Gutierrez as a summer intern from the Harvey Mudd College Upward Bound Program (picture 1). This program helps low income, often first-generation college-bound students. The program is designed to “generate the skills and motivation necessary for success in college.” During his internship Frank learned how to genotype and isolate homozygous lines from the Salk T-DNA seed collection. This involved how to select, sterilize and germinate seed lines in culture plates with media, transfer the seedlings to pots with soil, collect plant tissue to extract and purify DNA from it, using PCR and gel electrophoresis to identify specific T-DNA inserts, and finally collect the seeds from plants identified as T-DNA homozygous. In his internship Frank learned the importance of Arabidopsis thaliana in science and how a plant biologist can perform reverse genetic studies using TDNA lines in order to elucidate the function of genes in plants. At the end of his internship, Frank gave a presentation at the Salk Fellows room. Picture 1. HMCUBP Intern Frank Gutierrez, setting up a PCR and giving his final presentation. That summer we also received Sophia Wang as a volunteer (Picture 2). Sophia was recommended to our lab by her sister, Lucia, who was previously in our lab as a volunteer and then as an intern from the HSSI program. Sophia’s internship allowed her to get experience in a real lab. She was paired with Frank to learn basic plant biology and basic lab techniques, including seed sterilization, seed planting in media plates and their transfer to soil, general plant caring, and seed collection of confirmed T-DNA homozygous specimens. She also learned how to prepare media solutions, collect tissue for DNA extraction, as well as basic PCR and gel electrophoresis setups. Picture 2. High School Volunteer Sophia Wang. GAL-E also gave a tour to the Aaron Price Fellows (Picture 3). This program’s main goal is to teach fellows about government, cultural, and business institutions in an effort to illustrate the significance and relevance of these institutions in our lives as well as to provide exposure to exciting career opportunities and encourage the creation of friendships between individuals from different ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds. The students are recruited for the three-year program during their freshman year from Lincoln, Hoover, Pt. Loma and University City high schools. This year the event was held in January. The students got a quick tour of the lab, as well as a discussion about next-generation sequencing and how important it is in the future of science. They asked a lot of questions about careers in science and what kinds of opportunities there are. They then got a chance to practice pipetting by spotting seeds onto plates of growth media. After a few days we sent pictures of the grown plates to each student because they wanted to see how quickly the plants grew. It was such a success that some of them used the pictures in school reports. Picture 3. Aaron Price Fellows touring GAL-E. In early March we received around 24 students for the March of Dimes High School Science Day at SALK (Picture 4). This is a well-attended annual event that brings students and teachers from diverse high school campuses throughout San Diego to the Salk Institute for a day. The event begins with a short introduction from one of Salk’s faculty members explaining how they initially got involved in science and the impact that their research has on the community. The students are then divided into small groups and rotated through two or three unique laboratory experiments that have been designed by various groups of Salk’s graduate students, post-docs, and technicians. The Genomic Analysis Lab was visited by four groups of approximately six students each. Each group was given a quick tour of the laboratory as well as 45 minutes of guided hands-on experience with molecular biology techniques such as DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis, and a general overview of our high-throughput PCR set up pipeline, and next-generation sequencing analysis Picture 4. High School students visiting the Salk institute Genomic Analysis Lab. Early this year we received Joaquin Reyna (Picture 4) from UCSD’s Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD). The goal of the IMSD program is to motivate, mentor, and facilitate the transition of students from disadvantaged economic and social backgrounds and students with disabilities from college education to Ph.D. programs in the sciences. Joaquin is being mentored by some of GAL-E’s informaticists in the field of programming and data analysis. Picture 4. Joaquin Reyna from UCSD’s IMSD. The Genomic Analysis Laboratory also employs four undergraduate students that work part time in our lab while attending classes at UCSD. This experience helps these students not just to have an income, but also to develop skills beyond laboratory classes (Picture 5). Picture 5. UCSD students at GAL.