H is for Hands-On

Twenty-six high school students who had raised money for cancer research got a chance this spring to see how such money is spent, when they shared the lab bench with scientists from the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The students from Eureka High School traveled the 250 miles to the Cancer Center at UCSF Mount Zion where they learned how the cells in our body grow, and what goes wrong when someone gets cancer.

With the guidance of Cancer Center researchers, the students also conducted their own experiments. They compared under a microscope normal tissue with cancer tissue; stained human chromosomes; cut, cloned and sequenced DNA; and examined the cell cycle by flow cytometry.

The young visitors included students who had worked hard during the year to stop using tobacco, as well as some who were interested in entering the medical field and who had studied the techniques used in cancer diagnosis and treatment. "We were very pleased to be able to share the excitement of medical research with these high school students," says Frank McCormick, director of the Cancer Center. "It was a wonderful opportunity to cultivate interest in a field that offers profound benefits to humanity."

by Jennifer O'Brien