Biology Research Club

From bird watching trips and DNA extraction labs to international competitions and olympiads, Exeter’s very own Biology Club does it all. The group, made up of Exonians from every level of science background, takes part in a multitude of different, exploratory activities: intriguing experiments for newcomers and meticulous research for biology aficionados. But no matter what Bio Club attempts, it never fails to be fun-filled and brain-stimulating.“The goal is for people who like bio to have fun exploring and researching the topic, and for PEA as a whole to realize that bio is not all boring memorization,” upper Reginald Lamaute, a member of the club, said.Indeed, even members who began with limited biology proficiency have grown into quite the enthusiasts. “I did not join this club with a lot of lab experience or biology knowledge under my belt, but I have learned so much,” upper Melody Nguyen, who competed in one of the national biology tournaments this summer, said. “You do not have to know everything to be in our club, you just have to be interested and curious about how things work biologically.”The club, which only began competing in contests last year, meets about once or twice a week during fall and winter term to plan for the year’s competitions and to excite the members with laidback lab experiments and field trips.“The first level of commitment is to just come in once or twice and have fun,” co-head Christina Savvides said. “We have done bird watching trips. During parents weekend last year we extracted DNA from saliva. So it’s just an overview with some fun bio labs.”Then, at the dawn of spring term and under the guidance of Savvides, the club meets once a day to adequately prepare for the two primary competitions for the club.“Two summers ago I was elected co-head, and when I was elected one of my focuses was to bring more of a research aspect to biology club,” Savvides said. “That has been successful for the past year.”The team’s hard work has paid off so far, since Bio Club performed exceedingly well at both the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) at MIT and the USA Biology Olympiad."We genetically engineered E. coli cells to detect fracking runoff and neutralize its deleterious effects, and our poster was a finalist,” Savvides said, regarding the iGEM Tournament.Concerning the USA Biology Olympiad, “We have had five semi-finalists in our club and only fifteen people took the test so it was a pretty impressive turn around,” Savvides added.Looking forward to next year’s competitions, the club believes they will prove even more successful with better equipment. They are looking into a university affiliation with either the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or local colleges such as the University of New Hampshire, who could provide the lab space and equipment required. But no matter the outcome of the sponsorship, Bio Club is young and ready to grow.“Even though the club is only a year old, we have accomplished so much. We were one of the few high schools whose project was actually successfully completed,” Nguyen said. “Members have grown to be close to each other and we have all been exposed to things we would not have been [exposed to] anywhere else.”Lower Connie Cai, another member of the club, added, “I love bio club. It is one of the best clubs on campus and I cannot wait to see it succeed further.”