Olayemi Akintunde | UCSC | April 22, 2022
Last Friday, the Genomics Institute hosted our annual celebration of National DNA Day at the UC Santa Cruz Baskin Engineering courtyard.
The fun and frivolity of DNA DAY 2022 did not skip a beat even though it has been two years since the event was held in-person. WiSE returned with their DNA strawberry extraction that was enjoyed by everyone from visiting middle schoolers to graduate students. As students danced in the courtyard with Sammy Slug, RMI scholars presented their research on genomic science.
This year, we made an effort to have bilingual activities, with posters and swag in both English and Spanish. MESA brought 50 middle and high school students from Santa Cruz County to join the DNA DAY activities. In addition to the usual activities, they were treated to special lab tours at the Haussler/Salama, Brooks, Lee, and Sanford labs.
Sammy Slug took photos with students at the double helix photo booth and showed off their moves as they danced with Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas, a Mexican folkloric dance group that was tabling at the event.
Of course, DNA Day would not be DNA Day without our Double Helix dance. Students put on t-shirts with the base pairs A,C,T, and G and formed a giant conga line to represent the double helix. The line marched around the courtyard until they reached our Sammy slug mascot, who held the DNA helicase key that could separate the double-stranded DNA line into single strands.