yEvo projects enable high school students to gain experience with microbiology techniques and contribute to ongoing research.
yEvo Research Projects
Research projects are done in conjunction with university labs to work together towards answering questions related to fields such as evolution, biological engineering, and medical application.
Antifungal resistance in pathogenic fungi is a growing global health concern. Non-pathogenic Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a useful model for studying mechanisms of antifungal resistance that are relevant to understanding the same processes in pathogenic fungi. yEvo has studied resistance to two different classes of antifungal drugs: (1) Azole Drug Resistance and (2) Echinocandin Drug Resistance
Studying caffeine tolerance in yeast can help us understand challenges in industrial processes related to coffee and cacao fermentation, and also study basic biological pathways affected by caffeine such as the master growth regulator TOR.
More Yeast Activities
yEvo researchers, teachers, and students have developed and shared many other activities for high school students to learn about biology using yeast and gain skills related to microbiology, bioengineering, and food science.
Creating art with colorful yeast helps students gain familiarity with sterile technique and microbe handling while expressing their creativity!
Our Evolving@Home protocol use grocery store yeast for experiements that can be conducted outside of the classroom.
Baker's yeast and lactic acid-producing bacteria are key microbes in sourdough cultures. This protocol shows how to extract yeast from a sourdough starter.
Yeast are often used to produce compounds for industrial processes. This protocol shows how to extract the pigment violacein from engineered yeast, which has antibacterial properties.