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Purpose
Purpose
Our club's mission is to promote a strong sense of community among students on the University of Minnesota campus through educational and social events centered around a shared sense of passion in the various topics in genetics, cell biology, and developmental biology. This student run club hosts a variety of guest speakers from professors, researchers, graduate schools, and people working in a related field as well as fun social events to encourage community building. In addition to biweekly social and educational events, the new mentorship program serves as a fun and relaxed way to strengthen the community within the major where mentors help to guide mentees through the school year. Although this club appears major specific, anyone with an interest in genetics, cell biology, and development is welcome to join.
Research in the News
Research in the News
A research paper published in Science by researchers from the German biotechnology company BioNTech looked at the possibility of using mRNA vaccines as a treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease in which immune cells break down the myelin proteins insulating nerve cells. These researchers designed an mRNA molecule that instructs cells to produce disease-related autoantigens that are tolerated by the immune system. The mRNA vaccine was administered to mouse models with an MS-like condition and was found to reduce the severity of disease without inducing systemic immune suppression.
Read more here:
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6525/145
Krienke, Christina, et al. "A noninflammatory mRNA vaccine for treatment of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis." Science 371.6525 (2021): 145-153.
Jennifer A. Doudna (left), of University of California, Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (right), of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, on October 7th, 2020, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery and applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 system (2012) used by many biologists today. This is a giant historical win, being the first two woman to ever share the prize. The CRISPR-Cas system disarms viruses by cleavage of their DNA (similar to scissors), and can be modulated/hijacked for other purposes, such as genetic modification.
Link for more information if interested:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/press-release/
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