SPRING COLLEGE &
EDUCATION GUIDE2021
Gene Editing Experience Key for Seton
Hill Natural & Health Science Majors
3
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to
two scientists — Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer
Doudna — who discovered a revolutionary way to edit
DNA. Now commonly referred to as CRISPR (for “clustered
regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”) it
is used as a tool in labs around the world.
Haley Lucas, a premed student who is learning to use
CRISPR at Seton Hill, was thrilled when she heard the
Nobel news.
“I am grateful that I attend Seton Hill University,”
she says. “I believe it is important to have future
healthcare workers be exposed to this technology
because it will most likely be our reality.”
Haley’s biochemistry professor, Dr. Amalene Cooper-Morgan,
also had a powerful response to the Nobel news.
“I thought about what this means for every little girl interested
in STEM,” she says. “I thought about my students.
For the women about to enter the STEM workforce - the
world knows your worth.”
Kallie Shaffer, a forensic science major, found the experience
“time-consuming but worth it.”
“It was a struggle initially to grow the bacteria,” she
says “but once we got past that step, we successfully inserted
the antibiotic-resistant gene and
transformed our bacteria. It was really
rewarding.”
Kallie’s career goals are to work in a lab
with DNA, “then hopefully to work for the
FBI.”
“After navigating the setbacks and modifying the
experiment a little bit my group was able to get successful,
reproducible results,” says Sierra Luzier. “The experiment
took some dedication … but the end result was worth it.”
Sierra plans to work in a crime lab as a latent print
examiner.
“CRISPR is a novel, revolutionary tool that can be
applied in fields ranging from medicine to agriculture,”
Dr. Cooper-Morgan says. “CRISPR is already being used to
fight against Covid-19. It is important for our students to
familiarize themselves with new and emerging biochemical
tools to be competitive in the workforce.”
“The experience was one that I wouldn’t change,” says
Adam Bobak, a premed major who hopes to specialize in
pediatrics. “It is awesome to say that I have done work with
a technology that just recently earned two scientists the
Nobel Prize!”
SETON HILL