By Brenna Keller
NKyTribune associate editor
LifeSciKY hosted students from Holmes Middle School for their first-ever Student Lab Experience Day this week.
LifeSciKY is a lab incubator dedicated to accelerating science, entrepreneurship, education, and economic development in Kentucky. It provides affordable lab space, state-of-the-art equipment, and essential resources to empower innovators and advance groundbreaking work.
Funded in part by a $15 million commitment from the Kentucky General Assembly, LifeSciKY opened its Covington-based life sciences lab in the OneNKY Center in 2025.
Now that the lab is up and running, Executive Director Christin Godale is ready to tackle another goal, to offer educational and workforce training opportunities connecting students, researchers, and the community to hands-on experiences in the life sciences. Godale wants to provide a return on investment for the community, who helped fund LifeSciKY through their tax dollars.
“The community has paid into this project, and now I want their children to come into the lab and benefit from it,” she stated.
The participants in this first student STEM experience were Rachel Blackwood’s advanced 8th grade science students at Holmes. These students are taking high school-level biology. Over the summer, they prepared with a four-week course covering background 8th-grade level material, and they began their high school biology curriculum once school started.
Blackwood, who has a background in research science, spoke about how much she loves teaching these students. They are engaged in the material, often doing their own reading outside of class and making connections to what they are learning. They asked a lot of questions and were eager to participate in the hands-on learning day at LifeSciKY.
The day began with remarks from the sponsors that allowed the students to have their lab experience: Amy Quinn Dye of Republic Bank, Anthony Stoeber of the RCF Group, and Cheye Calvo of Educate NKY. Covington Mayor Ron Washington also welcomed the students to the lab.
Researchers from Thermo Fisher Scientific, led by Jonathan Cheek, were on hand to assist the students, as were LifeSciKY staff. Many of the resources in the lab were provided through LifeSciKY’s partnership with Thermo Fisher.
In the lab, students were provided with the PPE (personal protective equipment) that they would need: a lab coat, disposable gloves, and safety glasses. They were also given a safety overview for their time in the lab. Then, it was time for the hands-on experience.
The students were excited to experience science in a hands-on way. They emphasized how different the lab was from what they have at school, “We don’t usually do stuff like this in our science classes.” They noted the advantage they had through getting an opportunity to be in a lab setting at their age.
Students learned how to use a pipette, a laboratory tool used to measure and transfer precise amounts of liquid. They practiced their pipetting technique, transferring colored water to gel trays.
After practicing, the students were able to test a real sample. The goal of the lab test was to identify if a patient has cancer. The students used a process called gel electrophoresis, which allows researchers to distinguish different lengths of DNA fragments.
The students were looking for the p53 gene, which is a tumor suppressor. The test patient had a breast tumor that was biopsied. The students used the techniques they learned to pipette standard DNA markers, control DNA, the patient’s blood, the tumor, and surrounding tissue into a prepared gel. Then the loaded gels were placed into a machine to undergo electrophoresis.
While the test ran, the students ate lunch. Lunch featured a panel hosted by Godale and featuring Kristine Thompson, Senior Sales Representative at Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Chelsea Ex-Lubeskie, R&D Partnerships Manager for UK Innovate.
The panel exposed students to careers in science beyond working in a lab. The panelists told the students about their journeys through education and their careers and answered students’ questions. The overall theme of the discussion was to embrace change and recognize that there is no one linear path to success.
After lunch, the students analyzed the results of the gel electrophoresis. The suppressor gene was found in the blood and the surrounding breast tissue. However, the suppressor gene was not in the tumor. The patient has cancer.
This particular lab test was selected to tie in with what the students are learning in class, and also to highlight how impactful science is in the world. There is a human on the other end of the test who relies on scientists to provide critical health information.
Students left LifeSciKY with a deeper understanding of what a career in the sciences could look like, as well as the laboratory experience to supplement their in-class learning.