The SDS Biotechnology PAGE
Spring 2014
Welcome to the Spring 2014 newsletter for the Tulsa Community College Biotechnology Program! This
newsletter also serves past participants in the Stimulating Enthusiasm, Exploration and Discovery in
Biotechnology Education (SEEDBEd) NSF-ATE grant, and Medicines, Explorations, and Discoveries in
Biotechnology Education (MEDBEd), the NIH supplemental grant, and the Sustaining Outreach of Learning
Experiences in Biotechnology Education (SOLEBEd) grant! This newsletter is an excellent way to
communicate with all who support and participate in our programs.
Milestones this Spring Include:
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Four of our TCC Biotech students were awarded Oklahoma INBRE internships for the summer of 2014.
o Hunter Bearden, Jeremy Sabo, Ashton Williams, and Amanda Winn were awarded.
Two TCC Biotech students were awarded TABERC internships for the summer of 2014.
o Lina Guerrero and Joy (Angela) Fortner were awarded.
Mang Chang has been working in a molecular biology lab at the DOE Oak Ridge National Lab in
Tennessee. She is our first-ever national lab internship awardee!
Michael Adair has been awarded an internship through the National Science Foundation REU program
for Colorado State in Fort Collins. He is our first-ever NSF/REU internship awardee!
Congratulations graduates! They are Hunter Bearden, Mang Chang, Jeremy Sabo, Patrice Samuels, and
Mylissa Stover.
Diana Spencer and TCC hosted the DNALC NSF/ATE follow up one day workshop Genomics in the
Biosciences workshop on Saturday, April 12, 2014.
TCC Biotechnology was able to host two faculty workshops (NSF Bean Beetle and Bio-Rad Barcoding
and C. elegans chemotaxis) this spring through the Oklahoma INBRE funding.
Through support of TCC, CCURI and TABERC, Diana plans to present the Lab Sprints and Lab Sprints
Plus course again this summer. Professor Dusti Sloan also teaches a portion of the Lab Sprints.
Students from the Molecular Biology and Techniques and the summer Lab Sprints Plus classes were
able to present posters at Oklahoma Research Day in Edmond on March 7.
TCC Biotechnology presented the 8th annual High School Student Biotechnology Extravaganza!
Michael Adair, Lina Guerrero, and Hunter Bearden presented posters at the first annual TCC
Undergraduate Research Workshop on January 24, 2014.
Professors Briscoe, Enis, Sloan and Spencer are working to host the CCURI Lab Methods national
workshop during May 20-23.
Dr. Spencer was awarded the OK-BIOSCIENCE Community Recognition Award in Oklahoma City on
March 26, 2014 at the Skirvin Hotel.
On April 25, 2014, in collaboration with three other institutions, we will present Next Gen Sequencing
and the Tandy Supercomputer
Sticky Ends (Biotechnology Student Progress):
A crew of biotechnology students traveled to the Oklahoma Research Day on March 7, 2014 in Edmond,
Oklahoma. Students from Lab Sprints Plus and the Molecular Biology and Techniques fall 2013 class, Michael
Adair, Lina Guerrero and Jeremy Sabo with Dr. Diana Spencer presented Evaluation of Native Cross Timber
Plants Using rbcLa and matK Plastid Loci and The Cloning and Sequencing of Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate
Dehydrogenase (GAPDH) in Oklahoma Wildflowers.
Spring 2014 Cell Culture students include Michael Adair, Grant Chrapla, Angela Fortner, Lina Guerrero,
Gabriel Johnson, Kimberly Knowles, and Ashton Williams. Their undergraduate research project is entitled,
Effect of Industrial Pollutants on Mammalian Cell Viability.
Mang Chang is our FIRST EVER national lab internship awardee. This semester, Mang was awarded a DOE
Oak Ridge National Lab molecular biology internship. She has been having a marvelous time and we have
immensely enjoyed her emails regarding her successes and struggles in the research lab. Word is that they have
asked Mang to continue her research through the summer. Ah! The TCC Biotechnology student has found her
way!
Michael Adair is our FIRST EVER National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates
internship awardee. He has been invited to Fort Collins, Colorado to work on bioinformatics regarding
biofuels. Michael was actually offered two NSF/REU experiences this summer! We are proud that Michael
applied and was awarded this wonderful experience!
Four of our students have been awarded OK INBRE Summer Research Internships. Ashton Williams, Amanda
Winn, and Jeremy Sabo have all been awarded internships in the Tulsa area. Also, Hunter Bearden has been
awarded a second INBRE internship! We wish these students summers filled with great results in the research
lab!
Two of our students have been awarded the TABERC Summer Research Internship. We congratulate Angela
(Joy) Fortner and Lina Guerrero! We look forward to learning of their discoveries, and watching them begin
their formal research training!
We have a wonderful group of graduates this Spring 2014. Please join me in congratulating Mylissa Stover,
Mang Chang, Hunter Bearden, Patrice Samuels, and Jeremy Sabo. We wish them every happiness that life has
to offer and we feel certain that these students have the capability to change the world!
Making Solutions (Secondary Outreach):
In the Spring of 2014, two outreach workshops were presented to area secondary and community college
faculty through Oklahoma INBRE funding. Barcoding and C. elegans Behavior workshops were presented
through Leigh Brown of Bio-Rad on Friday, February 7. A Bean Beetle Workshop was presented by Larry
Blumer and Christopher Beck with funding through NSF and OK INBRE. Also, on Saturday, April 12, Jermel
Watkins presented a DNALC ATE – Genomics in BioSciences Follow-Up Workshop at TCC from 9-5.
Assuming one hundred students for each faculty member, with the barcoding workshop serving twenty
members and the bean beetle workshop serving sixteen members and five follow up participants, the outreach
has the potential to reach 4,100 students each year!
On Friday, March 29, 2013, TCC Biotechnology hosted the 8th annual High School Student
Biotechnology Extravaganza. More than 120 participants were present to hear Dr. Jane Purser from the Allergy
Clinic of Tulsa with The Science of Snot: What the Nose Knows, and Dr. Gerwald Köhler with Microbes and
Gut Feelings. Also, Dr. Tiffany Tsang shared Careers in Science: From Lowly Undergraduate to Small World
Initiative Director. A guest, Dr. Virginia Balke from Delaware INBRE visited during the day. A minimum of
80 high school students from ten area schools attended and at least 30 TCC students attended including the
PIPESTEMS students and the TCC Biotechnology Volunteers. Student participants were treated to six handson lab activities and information on enrollment in the afternoon. The day would never happen without the
support of the administration, the PACE community, and the faculty and student volunteers.
Translations (Community Outreach- Presentations and Workshops):
On Friday, January 24, 2014, Diana Spencer presented at the Honors Research Retreat for student and
community members. She presented two talks: Immersion in the Culture of Science: STEM Research
Opportunities and From Komodo Dragons to Sun Flowers, Research Options are Every Where! Students
Hunter Bearden, Michael Adair and Lina Guerrero presented their most recent research.
On Thursday, March 13, 2014 a four person evaluating committee from AAAS for the Oklahoma
INBRE grant visited the TCC Biotechnology labs. Administrators, Vice President and CAO, Rick Baser and
SEC Provost, Brett Campbell and Associate Dean, Lyn Kent along with Patty Smith, Dusti Sloan, Donita Gray
and Diana Spencer shared information. Professor Smith shared the work completed since the CUR workshops
in November of 2012 and Diana Spencer presented Oklahoma INBRE: Opportunities, Synergism and
Outreach. Diana fielded many questions from the committee. Students Mylissa Stover, Bobby Daugherty and
alumni Ian Schalo shared their experiences in the biotechnology program.
A group of biotechnology students and Professors Sloan and Spencer presented to the community
through the Southeast Campus Science Seminars on Wednesday, April 2. More than 80 participants heard the
presentation Creating Bioscience Futures One Opportunity at a Time. Michael Adair, Angela Fortner, Lina
Guerrero, Gabriel Johnson, Kimberly Knowles, Mylissa Stover and Ashton Williams helped with the
presentations. Embedded curricular undergraduate research experience (CURE) presentations, work from
summer undergraduate research (SURE) presentations and an example of a TABERC slide show were all
included.
Professors Briscoe, Sloan and Spencer will be offering a national molecular biology workshop on May
20-23. Professor Neil Enis from microbiology will also be presenting. High Pressure Liquid Chromatography,
Cell Culture, Real Time Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, and Antibiotic Discovery will be
presented by our faculty to other community college faculty across the nation. Along with TCC, the
Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative is funding the workshop.
A collaboration of TCC Biotechnology with professionals from OSU, Johns Hopkins and the Tandy
Supercomputing Center will present An Introduction to Next Gen Sequencing and the Tandy Supercomputer on
Friday, April 25, at 8:30 until 4:00. Participants are registered from Kansas to southern Oklahoma and include
undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty from secondary and higher education institutions. The
workshop will begin with DNA extractions from invertebrates in the biotechnology labs and then move to the
Tandy Supercomputing Center to finalize the analysis of data.
We have several opportunities for outreach on our near-future agenda. Lina Guerrero and Diana
Spencer will present a booth of biotechnology information at the 2014 Hispanic American Foundation
Luncheon and Career Fair on Thursday, May 8. We plan to prepare a workshop for the Oklahoma Women in
STEM for an offering on Saturday, May 17. We plan to work with two Math and Science in Health Careers
(MASH) camps in June.
The Sequence (Our Web Site):
http://www.TCCBiotech.org
The opening page of this web site allows you to click on the SEEDBEd icon, the MEDBEd icon, or the
Biotechnology icon. The biotechnology link leads you into the TCC web site of the biotechnology curriculum.
Both links are constantly updated.
One of my favorite finds on the internet is to locate a scientist that has organized their favorite sites to use as
tools of information. My new favorite was evidently created by Atsushi Isoai, Ph.D. This person has created a
catalog of essential tools for molecular biology and biochemistry. Travel to
http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~aisoai/index.html and get lost in the possibilities!