Gene Editing 360™

The Future of Gene Editing Starts Here

ChristianaCare's Gene Editing Institute seeks to empower, inspire, and engage the next generation of scientists committed to advancing gene editing technology.

Gene Editing 360™: Tools for a Journey of Discovery

Gene Editing 360™ is a suite of highly flexible educational tools designed to launch high school and college students on a journey of learning and discovery about the fundamentals of CRISPR gene editing technology.

Our focus is to demystify gene editing technology while enriching STEM education at both the high school and collegiate level with CRISPR in a Box™. The program currently centers on CRISPR in a Box™, an educational kit that provides students the opportunity to understand and utilize revolutionizing CRISPR/Cas technology and gene editing.

CRISPR in a Box™

At the heart of Gene Editing 360™ is CRISPR in a Box™, a teaching toolkit that provides students in high schools, community colleges, universities, and remote classrooms with a unique, hands-on learning experience in CRISPR gene editing. The Gene Editing Institute developed CRISPR in a Box™ with support from the National Science Foundation and in partnership with Rockland Immunochemicals and Delaware Technical Community College. The kit can be purchased from Carolina Biological Company.

CRISPR in a Box™ is at the core of three program models:

Learning Lab

Train the Trainer Workshops

GEI Comes to You

Learning Lab

Learning Lab is a free immersive field trip opportunity for teachers and students. Teachers can bring in students to a fully stocked laboratory to perform a half-day gene editing experiment with experts from our lab. This opportunity also allows students to speak directly with experts in the field about their own experiences in the lab as they learn this innovative new technology. A primer course preps students for an in-depth CRISPR experiment with a synthetic gene.

This lab is typically reserved for juniors and seniors in high school to ensure that students are appropriately familiar with lab techniques and concepts beforehand. Learning labs can accommodate most class sizes, though classes may be split into two separate sessions to provide the best experience, as the lab space has a max student capacity of 15 students.

If you're interested in attending a learning lab session with your class, sign up using our Cvent page. This ensures that you see every session date available to you and can plan your curriculum to accomodate this field trip. Hurry, as classes are filling up fast!

Cvent

Train the Trainer Workshops

The Gene Editing Institute hosts free workshops on site in our Learning Lab space. Educators and collegiate-level participants complete a gene editing experiment using CRISPR technology and engage with CRISPR in a Box™ experts. The goal of these sessions is to engage local educators and provide the tools, training, and resources to successfully implement CRISPR in a Box™ at their respective organizations.

To find out more, please send an email to geneeditinginstitute@christianacare.org or call 302-623-5306 to get in touch with us.

GEI Comes to You!

Members from the Gene Editing Institute come onsite to deliver CRISPR in a Box™ in this fee-for-service program model — providing in-person CRISPR expertise throughout the workshop and guiding students from start to finish in this experiment.

To learn more about what this educational model has done for local Delaware universities, check out the video below on our work at Delaware Technical Community College.

Frequently Asked Questions

By working with CRISPR in a Box™, you're giving all students an opportunity to explore a career in gene editing, discovering next-generation cures and diagnostics for diseases like cancer. Through this experiment, they will learn the fundamentals of CRISPR gene editing.

CRISPR in a Box™ is geared toward ambitious high schools, community colleges, and universities.

Students will learn the fundamentals of CRISPR gene editing, as well as basic laboratory techniques that are used throughout the field. Students perform a hands-on gene editing experiment, including a live readout within non-infectious E. coli bacteria. These experiments follow a gene editing reaction from beginning to end using techniques scientists utilize in research laboratories.

CRISPR in a Box™ does not use live human cultures or viruses. The cell-free system allows students to complete the reaction “in a tube” rather than within a living cell. This cell-free method allows students to more accurately learn and analyze the steps involved in a typical gene editing reaction.

CRISPR technology is the future of gene editing and biomedical research. All students should have an opportunity to explore careers in this field, discovering next-generation cures and diagnostics for diseases like cancer.

Basic biology laboratory equipment is required to teach CRISPR in a Box™. Please see the attached file for a complete list of required equipment that is not supplied by the kit.

CRISPR in a Box™ is completely safe as it does not use any live human cultures or viruses.

To teach CRISPR in a Box™, you need basic biology and microbiology skills. Micropipetting is essential, and an understanding of DNA is beneficial.

We host free monthly workshops where you can meet CRISPR experts while learning about CRISPR gene editing. The Learning Lab provides high school and collegiate students with the opportunity to try CRISPR in a Box™ in a fully-stocked laboratory space.