29th of August saw a successful completion of the first summer practical school of Skoltech Life Science Centre for bachelor students. The curriculum for this new initiative was developed from scratch by the recent Skoltech PhD graduate, Maria Sokolova and is a unique combination of theoretical expertise balanced with practice.
The summer school united 13 students, coming from different parts of Russia and CIS countries. Apart from compelling lectures and seminars taught by professors and PhD students of Skoltech, the students gained research experience in the Skoltech molecular biology teaching laboratory. They have been investigating antimicrobial substances produced by bacteria from environmental samples picked up around Skoltech campus and identified species of bacteria producing antibiotics. During their research the students have learned the fundamentals of “wet molecular biology” of the present day: how to transform bacteria with plasmid DNA, extract genomic DNA and perform PCR.
‘It was the best Summer School in my life. It was great, interesting and fascinating! I have learned many useful molecular biology skills and listened to lectures by the outstanding professors. I have also become friends with many great people. Thank you very much for such a great opportunity!’, says Diana Koldasbaeva from Kazakhstan.
The only problem that the students have faced was the necessity to leave too soon.
Professor Konstantin Severinov, Skoltech Life Science Centre director, says that the center is going to engage talented undergraduates in the future to ensure a constant stream of excellent and well-prepared applicants for the master program.
