Biology Students Excel in International Online Genetics Project
Students Earn Top Scores in International Online Competitions
When is a game not just a game?
St. Francis College students are finding out, it’s when winning could lead to amazing medical breakthroughs.
Professor Alison Dell introduced her Molecular Biology Class to the online, international competition PHYLO. The goal of the game is to figure out ways to match sets of DNA to help look for ways to identify and further genetic disease research.
“We’ve learned that computers are pretty bad at recognizing DNA similarity,” said Professor Dell. “Humans are much better at seeing patterns.”
By recognizing the patterns, scientists can then focus on specific DNA and look for ways to cure human diseases including heart disease, neurodegeneration and obesity
The students were originally assigned the task as a way to earn extra credit on an exam but competition between the students led to some intense time spent on Phylo. They posted about their work on social media and were even in contact via Twitter with a co-founder of Phylo, Jérôme Waldispühl of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.
“I enjoyed helping them to make this experience as smooth as possible,” wrote Waldispühl. “I have been really impressed by the energy they put in this competition.”
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During the final week of the competition, Professor Dell’s students held the top seven places against players and researchers from around the world. And one student, Alyssa Casciorizzo ’14 climbed all the way up to tenth, all–time, worldwide. “We didn’t think it would turn out like this, we all got really competitive especially when we stared getting closer to each other in scores,” said Alyssa, who currently works in a doctor’s office, volunteers at Maimonides Medical Center, and wants to be a Nurse Practitioner. In all more than 190,000 puzzles have been solved using Phylo. That puts Alyssa atop tens of thousands of other players. |
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Students then put their energy to work on another online game, EteRNA, which challenges players to make new RNA molecules for real-life synthesis in the lab.
Alyssa finished top in the class again, ranking 934 worldwide out of more than 70,000 players.
St. Francis College, founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, is located in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. Since its founding, the College has pursued its Franciscan mission to provide an affordable, high-quality education to students from New York City’s five boroughs and beyond.
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St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201
www.sfc.edu