Nine students in the advanced molecular biology class at The Pennington School will have their work on the analysis of gene sequences published this summer in the database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the largest database of gene sequences in the world.

Two of the students began the research last summer at Rutgers University; they and their classmates have continued the work this academic year.

NCBI is a national resource for molecular biology information and aims to develop new information technologies to aid in the understanding of the fundamental molecular and genetic processes that control health and disease, according to its website.

In addition to performing research, the centers goals include coordinating efforts to gather biotechnology information both nationally and internationally and creating automated systems for storing and analyzing knowledge about the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics. The Pennington students research will be part of that body of knowledge.

The Pennington research began when senior Anthony Hannani, of Allentown, and junior Joshua Hauser, of Lambertville, participated last summer in the Waksman Student Scholars program at Rutgers University. For three weeks in July 2013, the two students were trained in the theory and lab techniques of molecular cloning.

Their efforts paid off: both students isolated and analyzed novel DNA clones, and their work was recently published in the NCBI database.

This past fall, nine Pennington students participated in the same program as part of the schools advanced research in molecular biology course, taught by Dr. David Hauser. Their work will contribute to an ongoing effort by a research team at Rutgers to understand gene expression in the duckweed plant.

In addition to Anthony and Joshua, the participating students are seniors Nina Brander, of Hillsborough, and Lauren Klei and Alexandra Rego, both of Lawrenceville; and juniors Kristyn Green, of Ewing, Yangeng Jiang, of Princeton, Nathan Zavanelli, of Pennington, and Elizabeth Koloski of Newtown, Pennsylvania.

On June 4, the students will present their work at a symposium, sponsored by GE Healthcare, in New Brunswick.

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Pennington School students research to be published

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