FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 9, 2004

contact: Rich Murphy, PNRI (206) 726-1200 rmurphy@pnri.org

Seattle--Patti Wilson-Buchanan, teacher from Lakewood Middle School, spent a week as the student at Pacific Northwest Research Institute, PNRI. Dr. Salwa Al-Noori, scientist at PNRI, donned the teacher hat and worked with Patti in an internship studying diabetes research. From the time she spent here Patti will be able to take back to her classroom new research techniques she learned, such as western blot and

SDS-PAGE techniques, along with a greater understanding of diabetes. Dr. Al-Noori said, "Patti is full of enthusiasm; she did well on the experiments and learned to troubleshoot with me. She developed an excellent rapport with everyone in the lab. I missed her presence and input after she left."

Patti was a part of the Science Education Partnership, now in its 15th year at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Over two dozen other teachers from Washington including two from Singapore were teamed up with professional scientists in working research labs in order to update and hone their lab techniques. In addition to PNRI and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Washington, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute and corporate biotechnology firms Amgen and ZymoGenetics Inc. opened their labs to the teachers and gave them the hands on experience that continues to create great teachers.

PNRI has been involved with the Science Education Partnership for two years. Mentors in PNRI labs enjoy teaching their craft to such dedicated and mature people. The PNRI mentors past and present enjoy knowing that the passion they express through science will make its way into the classroom to influence the next generation of scientists.