WASHINGTON TWP. - It doesn't matter if you live in America, or Africa - a person's DNA is only one tenth of 1 percent different from each other.
This was a lesson in geography told to humanities students in all three township middle schools Friday morning when The Coriell Institute of Camden came to visit.
Executive Vice President Joseph Mintzer and Dr. Courtney Sill came to Chestnut Ridge Middle School to explain how geography is crucial to their work and research with the Coriell Institute.
The lesson in humanities teacher Lori Bathurst's class, was video-conferenced to the two other middle school humanities classes for National Geography Week. It focused on Coriell's stem cell work and a project called the Delaware Valley Personalized Medicine Project. By collecting adult stem cells from people in a 25 mile area around the institute in Camden, they are able to send those cells to children around the world and help them fight disease, Mintzer explained.
"Science is the whole world," he said. "It's not just North America. It's not just the United States. There's a whole lot of things happening across the world and globally that affect our business."
The Coriell Institute sends its bio-materials to 62 different countries in the world. Through the medicine project, the Coriell Institute collects DNA samples from people, and is able to find out their genetic sequence and what diseases or weakness their bodies may be prone to. Using that information, doctors can help better diagnose their patients and treat the diseases, Sill explained.
Students observing the presentation came up with a number of great questions, Sill said, such as whether identical or fraternal twins have the same DNA, and how a brother's DNA compares to his sister's.
They also talked about how genetics can affect a person differently, depending on how they live their life, such as a redhead being exposed to too much sun.
"Our genetics and where we live and how we live interact," Bathurst told the classes.
View a video