The students in Biology-Physics Room 130 sit in rapt attention as Professor Linda Strausbaugh explains how a frozen mummy in the Alps, a murder conviction, and a slave’s journey to freedom are all illuminated by genetic information.
“Genetics is a major factor in science and in many aspects of peoples’ lives – from stem cell research, evolution, historical genetics, anthropology, behavior traits, sexuality, viruses that cause diseases, to solving crimes, to bio-medical,” Strausbaugh, a professor of molecular and cell biology, tells the class. “These issues are on the forefront of debates about who we are and how we live. No matter what side of the issue you are on, you need to be informed about the process.”
Strausbaugh’s enthusiasm for genetic science is picked up by her students, who nominated her for the Alumni Association’s 2009 Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award (Undergraduate Level).
“Like a beacon, Professor Strausbaugh has guided me towards aspirations of a career in genetics,” says Lyndsay Tanner, a graduate student in the Professional Science Master’s Program in Applied Genomics, who took Strausbaugh’s genetics class for non-majors as an undergraduate.
The master’s program, developed by Strausbaugh, is run through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Center for Applied Genetics and Technology, which she also established.
Strausbaugh provides her undergraduate students in molecular and cell biology with fundamental skills, enabling them to pursue graduate work in a range of scientific fields. “We need to use the interest students and the public [have in genetics] to meet the demand for scientists and to craft and advance our training of professional researchers,” she says.
Strausbaugh emphasizes that effective teaching means more than being “a textbook wired for sound”: “You need labs where students learn how to conduct research.”
Students in her laboratory course begin their journey into the study of genetics by learning how to extract and type DNA from swabs of their own saliva. Using state-of-the-art equipment, most of which is funded by Strausbaugh’s research grants, the students load their DNA into trays and run it through a series of analyzers: autosomal STR typing, sequencing, and mitochondrial DNA. This information is then compared with the FBI database and with a migration map of the world.
This hands-on-approach makes the science ‘real’ and allows the students to see how their DNA links them to all of humanity, says Strausbaugh, adding, “Everyone’s DNA is unique, but it is connected to everyone who came before us.”
Strausbaugh helps students understand how genetic information is intertwined with a myriad of issues. One issue she worked on recently was the identification of a body from bone fragments.
Her lab was tasked with extracting DNA from burn-damaged dime-sized fragments of what was believed to be Adolf Hitler’s skull. Much of the research was conducted by two of Strausbaugh’s former students, Craig O’Conner, Ph.D. ’08, and Heather Nelson, MS ’04, both now on staff at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City. After successfully extracting DNA, the researchers determined that the skull fragments belonged to a female and were not Hitler’s. The story was featured in The History Channel series MysteryQuest.
“The case of Hitler’s skull was a teachable moment,” she says, “in that it used the topic of forensic DNA as a way to bring people to the science.”
Strausbaugh says that when she was an undergraduate, she learned first-hand how an understanding of genetic science can help people deal with genetic disorders. She knew a family with several children who had Niemann-Pick disease, a degenerative genetic condition that causes early death. The parents felt ashamed and blamed themselves for the affliction. Thanks to Strausbaugh’s counseling, the parents were able to see that the disease was not caused by anything they did or didn’t do – it was just nature playing out its DNA path.
The experience shaped Strausbaugh’s desire to educate the public. “Public literacy is related to the important issues of our time,” she says. “I firmly believe that people want to know the science behind the story.”
From the story of Ötzi the Iceman, a well-preserved mummy of a man from about 3300 BC discovered in the mountains of Europe, Strausbaugh teaches students to separate fact (genetic information) from theory about who he was (interpretation). From the case of Darryl Hunt, an African-American man who was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder but was later exonerated, students learn how DNA evidence solved a murder case; and from the saga of Venture Smith, an African slave who purchased his freedom, they learn how the descendants of a remarkable former slave carry his legacy to each new family generation.
Strausbaugh encourages students to apply their genetic research both to solving mysteries and to helping families understand genetically based illness.
“Dr. Strausbaugh has always empowered us to continue to teach others,” says Tanner, “She’s sort of like an Oprah Winfrey x Charles Darwin hybrid – a brilliant scientist with a lot of heart!”
