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Cricket legend Dickie Bird was at Huddersfield University yesterday to see students and school pupils from across the town create a new record, by building the longest ever model of a DNA gene. The 24 metre-long model, an exact replica of the insulin gene, will now be permanently installed in the university’s science school.
Ex-umpire Dickie, of Barnsley, who verified the attempt, said: “I think it’s an amazing achievement from a lot of people working together.
“It’s unbelievable what they can do with science now, and being able to see something like this on this scale is fantastic.”
As part of National Science and Engineering Week, the university invited about 60 sixth-form students from Morley High School, Rastrick High School, Huddersfield New College, Greenhead College, Shelley High School and Heckmondwike Grammar School.
They listened to lectures before joining about 40 university students to take part in the record attempt.
The record breakers, who now hope to feature in the Guinness Book of World Records, spent about an hour constructing the model, which consisted of 1,118 base pairs. The previous record was a model made up of 300 base pairs.
Dr Jeremy Hopwood, science lecturer and event organiser, said: “The big difference is that the previous record breaker was a random sequence. Our students followed the exact gene sequence for insulin. It was a great effort by a lot of people coming together. There’s only so much you can get from a textbook, so in terms of educational value something like this is brilliant.”
Prof Rob Smith, Dean of the school of applied sciences, added: “It’s wonderful to have a co-operative effort like this. It’s much more impressive than I ever imagined.”
Source : examiner.co.uk
