SEATTLE – The Seattle Children’s Research Institute broke a Guinness Book World Record Thursday for the most people conducting a DNA isolation experiment simultaneously.
More than 300 people extracted the DNA of a strawberry at the research institute’s new South Lake Union facility, Building Cure.
“We want to engage our community in the work that we’re doing, and extracting DNA is part of the work that we’re doing in our immunotherapy studies,” said Dr. Jim Hendricks, president of Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
Immunotherapy, one of the cornerstones of the institute’s research, is new form of cancer and autoimmune disease treatment that harnesses the power of the body’s own immune system to treat diseases.
The world record was to celebrate Build Cure’s groundbreaking, and kick start a STEM education program that the institute hopes will take hands on science to kids and make it interesting.
The 540,000 square-foot facility doubles the space of the research institute and also includes classrooms for student learning and programming.
The facility will have its grand opening in July 2019.
