surf stem cell pipeline

City College of San Francisco Stem Cell Pipeline

Stem Cell and Cell Culture Program for High School Students

Stem Cell Pipeline Program

•  Classes are designed for high school students •  BTEC 5– seminar class

•  BTEC 6– stem cell class

•  Students start earning credit to cer=ficates and AS degrees

•  Students are recruited by their high schools. •  High schools are recruited by the community college.

What’s new

•  Classes offered at Aus=n Community College TX and Alamance Community College NC

•  New ar=cula=on with Sequoia & San Mateo High School districts

•  Summer classes for distance schools •  Curriculum on Bio-‐Link Clearinghouse •  Driving Biotech programs at other HS like Burton & Leadership

•  Collabora=on with Gladstone Ins=tutes for summer Biotech “Boot-‐camp”

BTEC 6 Basics of Cell Culture

•  9 weeks long •  Class meets once a week

•  4 hours each session •  Both lecture and laboratory components

Introduc5on to the cell culture equipment

•  Basic cell culture techniques:

•  Defros=ng cells from frozen stocks •  Feeding and passaging cells in culture •  Coun=ng cells and calcula=ng concentra=ons •  Serial dilu=on and pla=ng cells •  Freezing and storage

•  Experiments:

•  Asep=c technique and serial dilu=on prac=ce •  Count and plate specific number of cells •  Live and dead cell iden=fica=on using fluorophores •  Survival assay •  Transfec=on •  Stem cell differen=a=on

Iden5fica5on of live and dead cells using PI and

Calcein AM

Transfec5on of cells by pDsRed2-‐Mito

Survival Assay

IC50

0.5

Map 2 protein (red) in differentiated neurons

Pluripotent ESCs ESCs in suspension Week 1- Floating EBs

Week 2-Differentiated neurons

+ RA

Differentiation of embryonic stem cells into neurons

Immunocytochemistry

What is your level of interest in con=nuing your educa=on in the fields of health sciences and/or biology?

Very high High Moderate Low Very low 0

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Students’ Comments

•  “Personally I am .red a0er a day of school. There is only so much lecturing I can take.”

•  “Lectures were boring, but informa.ve.”

•  “Students want prac.ce more than lecture some.me lectures makes us bored.”

Ideas to make lectures more interac5ve??

More Student Comments:

•  “It was interes.ng to see the cardiomyocytes beat. It’s amazing that we preEy much made our own neurons/ cardiomyocytes.”

•  “I think this class is a very good class experience to have. I don’t know any other high schooler who has seen bea.ng fluorescent cells.”

•  “This was an amazing experience.” •  “I enjoyed doing the labs and wish that the class lasted longer so we could do more labs.”

•  “I learned a lot. Should offer more classes for high school students.”

Our Partners

•  San Francisco High schools: Lincoln Wallenberg Galileo Leadership Mission

•  Alamance Community College, NC

•  Aus=n Community College, TX

Available Class materials on Bio-‐Link Clearinghouse

•  Student manual •  Instructor’s manual

•  Quizzes and exams

•  Prac=ce problem sets

•  Lectures

Challenges: 1.  Equal opportunity for students at

partner high schools (11 high schools, 8 ISDs)

2.  Poli=cal climate toward human ES cells

3.  Student transporta=on to campus

Challenge: Picking par=cipants

Solu=on: •  Created a panel to address logis=cs : ACC representa=ves and high school teachers •  Designed and implemented an applica=on process to select par=cipants from interested students

Results: •  Class of 10 students and a high school teacher-‐ represen=ng three high schools and 2 ISDs

Challenge: Poten=ally conten=ous poli=cs

Solu=on: •  Used mouse iPS cells rather than human ES cells

Results: •  Protocols are having to be developed for the course using this alterna=ve cell line.

Challenge: Transporta=on

Solu=on: •  Required students to provide their own means of transporta=on.

Results: •  Many of the students from lower socioeconomic areas or from areas far from the campus were not able to par=cipate.

Current/Future work: 1.  Begin offering in the summer to increase

availability. 2.  Develop an ebook for the course to make

it more interac=ve and accessible to other schools.

3.  Adapt the course to be taught in the high school with a corresponding stem cell workshop at ACC.

First Year

•  Recruited from 5 high schools and the middle college on ACC campus

•  11 fall semester, 8 spring semester

•  Mix of juniors and seniors

•  Background of basic algebra & biology

Things That Didn’t Work

•  Extracurricular, no school credit – Selling point: what makes you stand out in the field of applicants to your school of choice

•  Resolu=on: students get a Cer=ficate of Comple=on

•  Future direc=on: extend the program to full semester with more microbiology, sterility basics – Becomes dual enrollment with credit


•  Working around two different school schedules, breaks, holidays, etc. – Some=mes 2 weeks between mee=ngs – Cells need care

•  Arranged ac=vi=es to allow for =me to complete experiments without long breaks


•  Not able to get ESC for the first semester – numerous technical difficul=es – Obtained for the second semester – Not the same as the mESC line used at CCSF, some results were slightly different •  No bea=ng cardiomyocytes, did get neuron differen=a=on

What Worked

•  Started with basics of bacteria (ubiquity), sterility and contamina=on

•  Surprisingly adept with cell cultures (CHO-‐K) •  Able to develop asep=c techniques quickly •  Successful ac=vi=es included: – All but the bea=ng cells

•  Added a tour of the Wake Forest Ins=tute for Regenera=ve Medicine – Mega hit with the students

Our first partner high school: Lincoln

Ques=ons?