Standing in front of a dozen students, sophomore Alexandra Dram passed two big boxes of munchkins to the tables, and then cleared her throat. Everyone was silent, eager to know more about a new club started by Dram called Genes In Diseases And Symptoms (GIDAS).

GIDAS is an organization created by miRcore. MiRcore is 501(c)(3) non-profit research organization that envisions to make personalized medicine based on one’s genes. There are GIDAS chapters all over the world, in the U.S., Canada and even in India.

“[The mission of GIDAS] is to expose students to research opportunities in the fields of genetics and allows students to take leadership by acting as research scientists,” Dram said.

Dram, who has been part of miRcore for a year, has always had an interest in what it has been doing. According to Dram, miRcore is researching personalized medicine.

“Personalized medicine is tailoring medicine to work for one person using genetics […] and not researching medicine that would work for most people,” Dram said.

GIDAS was started by a scientist named Inham Li, who was concerned about her line of work, and wanted to inspire others to take leadership in the field of medicine.

“GIDAS allows for students to use free gene databases to do their own research on something they want,” Dram said.

In addition to researching,  students will advocate and conduct fundraising events for genetics research, a branch of medical research that does receive adequate funding.

Sean Rauen, the sponsor of GIDAS, found the club interesting to invest in because

“[GIDAS] is science-driven,” Rauen said. “The research sounds cutting edge and also because even though it is for high schools students, it is something that can benefit someone or students in the future.”         

Both Rauen and Dram agree that the main purpose of starting this club was to show students the value of genetics and research.

Students who attended the first meeting thought that this club is something different and interesting.

“It wasn’t anything like medical club, where you sit and listen to presentations, but you get to do more hands-on and self-independent learning, and get as much as you want from it,” sophomore Annie Kong said.

Kong had attended the meeting along with junior Emma Treco, who also enjoyed what the club had to offer.

“The club interests me and will be planning on participating this year and even next year,” Treco said.

Come to room 314 on Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:30 to join!