Students isolate DNA from strawberries at THI's Technology Day

The professor and the students observe how the DNA becomes visible.

Photo: THI

The professor explains the experiment to a group of students.

Photo: THI

The professor is standing at a table full of laboratory utensils and household items.On another table you can see a bag of strawberries.

Photo: THI

The students read the instructions for the experiment.

Photo: THI

The first liquids are mixed together.

Photo: THI

Finally, the alcohol is added.

Photo: THI

The DNA gets extracted from the red liquid.

Photo: THI

Every year on the Day of Prayer and Repentance, THI invites schoolgirls from the 9th grade onwards to the Technology Day. Here, the schoolgirls can obtain information about the various study programs, get to know everyday life at university and gather impressions in the laboratories.

Dr. Kathrin Tissot-Daguette, Professor of Biotechnology and Management, is a lecturer on the Life Science Management (LSM) program at THI Business School and came up with something special for her groups of schoolgirls: using simple household items, the DNA of strawberries was isolated and thus made visible. The students eagerly got down to work and mixed solutions, mashed the strawberries and filtered the resulting mixture. After adding alcohol at the end, the DNA slowly became visible and could be skimmed off.

Later, Prof. Tissot-Daguette gave more detailed explanations about DNA and an overview of the current state of research. The students were very interested and asked many questions.

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