For ten years Ridley College Biology students worked on the Human Genome Initiative with the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. The University would send templates of chromosomes, for example the breast cancer gene or the human deafness gene, our students would sequence the genes and send the data back to the University where it was put into a repository.

Today, students are working with the University of Guelph on the International Barcode of Life Database. Labs around the world are sequencing different species with the goal of being able to look at a small gene in each species and catalogue it in the name of biodiversity.

The International Baccalaureate Biology students conducted a three day experiment for the database.  The students were given samples of fish supplied by a grocery store (at this point they did not know the species of fish) and extracted the DNA in an attempt to identify which fish they were given. The students then sent their findings to the University of Guelph to be compared with the Barcode of Life Database.

To learn more about the International Barcode of Life, please click here.

To learn more about Ridley College’s International Baccalaureate programme, please click here.