What you'll learn at the BioQuest Academy

What you'll learn at the BioQuest Academy

By enrolling into the BioQuest Academy, you will become part of the BioQuest global health community not only for the two weeks (60 hours) that you are physically at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, but throughout your senior year of high school and beyond! You will advance your understanding of infectious diseases and global health, and become part of the community who cares and works towards finding solutions to these problems.

What is included?

• Enjoy lab materials, research notebooks and meals while at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute at NO COST!

What is not included?

• Lodging for distant applicants or participants.
• Transportation and parking costs associated with travel to the downtown Seattle location of Seattle BioMed

Discover the breadth of your immersion below:

Week One: Biomedical Boot Camp!

During the first week of the BioQuest Academy, you will learn through interactive global health lectures, hands on laboratory experiences, movies, and interactions with Seattle Biomedical Research Institute scientists the following:

• The mission of Seattle Biomedical Research Institute
• The research areas of Seattle Biomedical Research Institute
• Lab safety
• Infectious diseases epidemiology
• Your normal microbial flora
• Sterile microbiological culture techniques
• Use of a compound and dissecting microscope
• Liquid handling (micropipetting)
• Anopheles mosquito dissection
• Measuring gene expression and transcription rates
• Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
• Agarose gel electrophoresis
• Gram stain techniques
• Antimicrobials, drug development and testing for resistance
• The human immune system and vaccine development
• Blood separation
• ELISAs
• DNA Forensics and restriction fragment analysis

Week Two: BioMedical Immersion!

On the second week of the BioQuest Academy, students will divide into three teams. Each team will work on one of the questions listed below and learn the scientific process behind answering scientific questions using real samples from Seattle Biomedical Research Institute! Don’t worry about the big words and whether you can do this: 100% of Academy students would recommend the BioQuest Academy to applying kids!

• Team HIV
  The HIV team, hard at work: How can we measure what is the best vaccine against HIV?
  We will explore this question by affinity purification of circulating HIV IgG antibodies from serum, analyzing antibody purity by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis, and by measuring antibody titers by ELISA. We will explore how to administer a vaccine that will protect against all HIV clades found throughout the world.
• Team Malaria
  The malaria team analyzes data: How can we determine if a malaria vaccine will be protective against all malaria parasites throughout the world? We will explore this question using the power of DNA sequencing and bioinformatic analysis to look at the genetic variation in DNA prepared from malaria parasites from different parts of the world.  Students will determine if the protein encoded in these diverse DNA samples would be a reliable vaccine antigen to protect against worldwide malaria.
• Team TB
  The tuberculosis team: How does Mycobacterium tuberculosis adapt to life inside the human host? We will explore this question by investigating the impact of their own, unique experimental sample conditions on a safe cousin of Mycobacterium smegmatis using molecular techniques such as mRNA extraction, cDNA synthesis and gene expression analysis. Using lab results, students will propose novel drug targets for tuberculosis.

Academy Alumni!

We would like you to take the knowledge and inspiration gained during your time in BioQuest to your school and community and become a global health professional! Seattle Biomedical Research Institute staff will be there to support you with your senior year steps towards college careers in the biomedical tract, including:

• Assistance and mentorship with common senior year activities (including letters of recommendation, application essay support, scholarship essay support, local college tours) both during the program and throughout your senior year.
• Support with your senior year project related to global health, public health or infectious diseases.
• Access to the BioQuest Academy Facebook group.
• In-school visits and presentations from the BioQuest team!
• Invitations to local public health and global health training sessions and lectures.
• Priority status for Seattle Biomedical Research Institute volunteering opportunities and internships.