DRB Students Take Charge at JHOC Conference Saturday, September 30, 2017
Graduate students from the Developmental and Reproductive Biology (DRB) graduate program and their undergraduate student helpers took part in the Joint Healthcare Opportunities Conference (JHOC) 2017. The DRB Team organized Hands-on Activity Session, "Help me conceive! Fertility workshop", which provided students from local middle and high schools an opportunity to learn about developmental and reproductive biology and what career opportunities are available for alumni of the program.       This workshop was attended by more than 50 middle- and high-schoolers. The participants learned why it is important to study reproductive biology in the research laboratory setting and how Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) can help couples to conceive when natural conception methods fail. Students rotated through four interactive stations (Andrology, Fertilization, Genetics, Basic Science) and learned how graduate college education might enable them to contribute to the field of reproductive health as research scientists, geneticists, and embryologists. The local school students were provided an opportunity to observe live sperm, eggs and embryos using microscopes, recognize abnormal chromosomes, and attempt to load gels for molecular analyses.
Egle Ortega, DRB PhD Program (Team Leader) Chantell Balaan, DRB MS Program Vania Fernandes, DRB PhD Program Ryuei Sato, DRB PhD Program Damiano Mauro, DRB PhD Program Justin Padron, DRB MS Program Lynn Nguyen, undergraduate Quinci Salvador, undergraduate Michael Madayag, undergraduate