Bryan continues studying Molecular Biology at the University of Maryland!

– September 26, 2019

I was very pleased to learn that my former mentee, Bryan, a high school student, was admitted to the University of Maryland where he continues studying Molecular Biology. Bryan was working with us during last Spring semester, and I was really impressed by his incredible progress during those several months. Bryan joined us in January knowing nothing about wet lab techinques for DNA barcoding process; he worked once a week only learning all the steps; and by the end of April he had successfully extracted genomic DNA from 100+ leafhopper samples, amplified plant DNA from leafhopper guts and succesfully obtained and deposited four plant sequences.

He is the first author on four GenBank submissions which were approved and are currently available in the NCBI GenBank database:

1. Stancliff, B., Avanesyan, A. and W. Lamp. (2019) Vicia faba var. major tRNA-Leu (trnL) gene, partial sequence; chloroplast. Direct Submission, GenBank Accession no. MK934667
2. Stancliff, B., Smith, D., Avanesyan, A. and W. Lamp. (2019) Pisum sativum tRNA-Leu (trnL) gene, partial sequence; chloroplast. Direct Submission, GenBank Accession no. MK919208
3. Stancliff, B., Abdelwahab, O., Avanesyan, A. and W. Lamp. (2019) Vigna unguiculata tRNA- Leu (trnL) gene, partial sequence; chloroplast. Direct Submission, GenBank Accession no. MK883492
4. Stancliff, B., Ho, J., Avanesyan, A. and W. Lamp. (2019) Helianthus annuus tRNA-Leu (trnL) gene, partial sequence; chloroplast. Direct Submission, GenBank Accession no. MK875279

His work was the essential part of our paper on the use of molecular markers for plant DNA detection from leafhopper gut contents (the manuscript is currently submitted).

Bryan was also featured in The John Carroll School News.

I’m so happy for him!