Challenging high school students to think about clinical trials: A laboratory approach

CityLab, a collaboration between Boston University Schools of Medicine and Education, is developing a new curriculum supplement that includes both hands-on laboratory experiments and computer-assisted analysis to impart a keen understanding and appreciation of the basic elements of clinical research to students in grades 9-12 and their teachers. The program expands on one of CityLab's most successful curriculum supplements entitled “The Mystery of The Crooked Cell”. This supplement teaches students about the point mutation that is responsible for sickle cell anemia and it does so by engaging students to perform hemoglobin electrophoresis. To expand this curriculum supplement to teach students about clinical trials, students learn about the importance of testing a novel drug candidate that may reverse the clinical manifestations of sickle cell disease by reactivating the gene that codes for the formation of fetal hemoglobin. This session will provide an overview of the curriculum as well as share experience and outcomes of the curriculum used with students at CityLab. CityLab is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Award.