Signs of Life: Jordan Campus

The parking lots are mostly empty – the halls inside buildings quiet. But in one room of the Health Sciences building on Salt Lake Community College’s Jordan Campus, a lone student works in the cadaver lab. Around the corner in another lab, a student has her hands in a sealed anaerobic chamber, starting a culture with lactobacillus.

 

It’s what a typical summer day on this campus looks and sounds like during the COVID-19 pandemic – classrooms void of students and labs serving a fortunate few. Brenda, who asked that her last name not be used, is continuing years of student research through InnovaBio, a biotechnology contract research organization that works with SLCC to give students the opportunity to develop lab skills while working on research for real companies.

 

“The ultimate goal is to see if we can improve the bacteria we have in our own guts,” says Dr. Lane Law about Brenda’s research, which will test the impact of additives on the growth of the lactobacillus she is transferring into test tubes with a pipette. Lane is the InnovaBio lab manager. “This is original research that is being done.”

It turns out, the same techniques and equipment used to keep researchers and their research materials safe in labs during normal conditions – lab coats, gloves, masks, protective eyewear – works during a pandemic. That, and the number of students allowed in labs at the same time has been reduced to a just few. “I think the biggest thing is that we’re limiting the number of people,” Lane says. “So, it’s actually a pretty safe environment.”

 

Brenda and another student, whose research she is continuing, work together to prepare the lactobacillus. “They haven’t worked on this project for about a year,” Lane says. “We are getting back up to speed so that they can verify a few of their results. It’s an incremental thing – each student carries forward the research done by previous students. There’s no way to replicate working in an anaerobic chamber – you can’t grow bacteria virtually.”

 

Brenda is only five credits away from earning an associate’s degree in biotechnology at SLCC and has plans to earn additional degrees at four-year institutions, emphasizing her studies in genetics and genomes. “I want to work in a lab,” she says. “I love research. I’m so curious. I love investigating.” Brenda credits her high school alma mater Salt Lake Center for Science Education for piquing her interest in scientific research. She's determined to get ahead while labs at SLCC are operating over the summer. “I think it’s important because I still have dreams to fulfill,” she says. “Even though there is a pandemic, I still want to graduate and move on.”