The juniors and seniors in Mrs. Mary Balamucki’s Principals of Biomedical Science class recently worked as “cytogeneticists.” Cytogenetics is the branch of genetics that studies chromosomes to identify abnormalities.

Balamucki gave the students a case study and a karyotype for their patient. 

A karyotype is an organized profile of an individual’s chromosomes showing their number, size, and shape. The resulting display, called a karyogram, helps identify genetic conditions by revealing chromosomal abnormalities. A karyogram includes the sex chromosomes, XX for female and XY for male. 

The students unscrambled the chromosomes to determine the patient’s chromosome anomaly, such as Down syndrome, an extra chromosome, or Turner syndrome, a missing X. 

 They were “Disorder Detectives,” searching for “Clues in the Chromosomes.”