Spotlight:
Local High School Teachers Spend Summer in Research Labs through GeneBIORETS Grant
For five high school science teachers from the New Orleans area, “back to school”
takes on a different meaning this summer. These teachers went back to school – medical
school -- just when everyone else began summer vacation. By summer’s end they will
return to their respective high schools with new experiences, an updated science curriculum,
and some new high-tech resources.
The teachers, representing Mandeville, Christ Episcopal, Metairie Park Country Day, Warren Easton and St. Mary’s Dominican High Schools, are paid a stipend to spend four days each week conducting research in LSU School of Medicine-New Orleans’ state-of-the-art labs with one additional day each week devoted to enhancing their curriculum for the upcoming school year.
“The LSU School of Medicine has a fourfold mission of training the state’s future
healthcare providers, advancing medical research, providing patient care, and community
outreach. A program like this touches on every aspect of that mission – we are providing
experiences that these teachers will bring to their students, inspiring the next generation
of healthcare providers and researchers,” said Fern Tsien, PhD, Program Director and
Assistant Dean for Medical Student Research.
The program is made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Named GeneBIORETS, the grant is highly competitive, with only two awarded nationally in 2024. The goals of the GeneBIORETS program are for teachers to develop collaborative relationships with colleagues and researchers and provide training experiences that will have long-term impacts on how they impart science education in their classrooms, ultimately inspiring students of diverse backgrounds to pursue and excel in STEM professions.
“The fact that the NSF only awarded two of these special grants speaks volumes about
the quality of our research laboratories, training capabilities, and history of outreach
to the community,” said LSU Health Sciences Chancellor Steve Nelson, MD.
Madelaine Bryant, from Christ Episcopal, is working in Dr. Xinping Yue’s lab and researching the effects of nicotine and fatty acid on circadian rhythm and cell growth in heart cells.
“Through this program, I have gained additional hands-on research experience and the opportunity to work side-by-side with scientific researchers. I am excited about learning new techniques, and bringing this perspective back to the classroom. I also can’t wait to bring my students to the campus so they can be inspired about their own future possibilities,” said Bryant.
Janine Koenig teaches advanced biology at Dominican High School and is examining how tropical Leishmania parasites infect their hosts. Koenig is mentored by Dr. Ben Kelly and describes the program as both amazing and humbling.
“I was attracted to the program for the opportunity to bring research into the classroom, because students learn best by doing,” she said. “It has been an incredible experience to work in a research capacity alongside scientists and to see their passion to find cures for diseases.”
“This program has changed the way I am going to teach. It has also made me aware of the incredible resources available through the LSU School of Medicine to the high schools in our community, resources I didn’t know about previously,” she added.
Joe Vaccaro, PhD is investigating chemotherapy-associated genetic changes that result in adverse, long-term health outcomes for survivors of pediatric cancer. He is being mentored by GeneBIORETS team leader Dr. Tsien and teaches at Metairie Park Country Day.
“Although I trained and worked as a scientist before becoming a teacher, the GeneBIORETS program gave me the opportunity to do research in bioinformatics, an area of science in which I was entirely inexperienced. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in this intellectually exciting experience and to have met so many passionate and engaging professionals,” Vaccaro said.
Marla Taylor teaches at Warren Easton and is being mentored by Dr. Diedre Devier. She is studying racial differences in cognitive assessment scores between healthy individuals and patients with multiple sclerosis.
“I applied for the summer internship to gain more STEM strategies and techniques to enhance my classroom experience and increase student engagement,” Taylor said. “I am gaining extensive knowledge in neuroscience and how the nervous system is the intricate function in determining body function and the quality of life,” she added.
Laura Decker, from Mandeville High School, is creating virus particles that can be used in cystic fibrosis gene therapy. She is mentored by and working in Dr. Guoshun Wang’s lab. Decker described the program as a “fantastic opportunity to learn firsthand about research in gene therapy” so that she would be able to answer her students’ questions about the topic. In addition to the hands-on experience, she is gaining “insights into the many careers in health sciences beyond nurse and physician that are open to my students,” she said.
The summer program culminated on July 17 with a poster presentation and symposium. The community was invited to attend as the teachers presented their research findings.
Several LSU Health Sciences Center faculty are coordinating the GeneBIORETS program: Principal Investigator Dr. Tsien (Genetics, Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies), Co- Principal Investigator Dr. Kelly Sherman (Pharmacology, Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies), and Co-Investigators Dr. Michael Norman (School of Allied Health Professions), Ms. Martha Cuccia (School of Public Health), and Dr. Arnold Zea (Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies).
High school teachers interested in applying for the summer of 2025 can find information in the coming months on the website.