Biotechnology Genetics students get creative with their presentations

Zoe Bodovinitz, News Editor
Originally published June 13, 2019

Students in the Biotechnology programs presented creative science research projects at the 19th annual Student BioExpo at Shoreline Community College. There were many different categories to choose from ranging from multimedia to molecular modeling. Senior Ethan Nishi partnered with senior Peter Furia to create music that presented the research they did on Brachydactyly.

Nishi and Furia created a rap song, “THUMMO (Prod. ThumbyBoiz), describing the mutation that causes people to have shorter than average thumbs. They made information that could seem unimportant more accessible to people in a form they enjoy and can have fun with.

“It took us a good 12 hours total to write, produce, edit and write all of the papers,” Nishi said. “It was a lot of work, but it felt extremely relieving to turn it in.”

The song category had many requirements that pushed the music to be descriptive about the science as well as entertaining.

“It was required to provide 4 additional pieces of information,” Nishi said. “The science background was a 5 page paper about our topic. The artists statement was basically just why we chose our topic. The connections and collaborations was all about who we worked with and what we learned. And the score was generated by putting our beat through an online program that wrote the score for us.”

On the day of the event, there were eight other music entries making the competition intense. The song was placed third for its category.

“It felt really good to place especially because of all the hard work we put in,” Nishi said.

Other winners:

Multimedia: Honorable Mention- Rudy Siehl and Jessica Coacher or Life with Down Syndrome; Ainsley Perkins and Sarah Payne for Parkinson’s Disease: Losing Control; Tied for 3rd Place- Olivia Bernard and Abigail Frankel for Total Takeover: Polycystic Kidney Disease; 1st Place- Olivia Balaban for Aicardi Up Close.

Music: Honorable Mention- Noah Tanner, Josh Barton, and Zev Carlyle for Huntington’s Disease Song; 3rd Place- Ethan Nishi and Peter Furia for THUMMO.

Web Design: 3rd place- Luke Heinen for Autism in Science and Society.