Congratulations to the ABE Teachers Awarded the Global Mini-Grant

We are proud to congratulate the five ABE Master Teacher Fellows who have been awarded the 2025–2026 global Mini-Grants. These grants support innovative classroom projects that strengthen bioscience skills, increase student engagement, and connect learning with real-world applications.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all teachers who received this global mini-grant support, especially our ABE Türkiye teacher, Müşerref Dalkılıç. We are extremely proud that our teacher has been selected for this prestigious support.

We believe that Müşerref Dalkılıç will continue to inspire her students and colleagues through her dedicated work. As ABE Türkiye, we celebrate this meaningful achievement and wish her continued success in the projects she will implement in the future.

ABE teachers and projects awarded the 2025–2026 global Mini-Grants:

Müşerref Dalkılıç
ABE Türkiye (2023–24 Türkiye MTF Cohort)
This mini-grant supports making gel electrophoresis analysis accessible to visually impaired individuals. The project includes the development of Braille cards and 3D-printed scenarios based on gel electrophoresis results, designed within a variety of contexts.

Vanessa Gibbens
ABE Australia (2024–25 MTF Cohort)
This mini-grant supports the purchase of gel electrophoresis units and pipettes to implement the curriculum developed during the Master Teacher Fellowship year and to make ABE a sustainable year-round learning resource, particularly for 10th grade students. The project also aims to train non-ABE teachers to help disseminate hands-on biotechnology education more broadly.

Christine Thompson
ABE Massachusetts (2024–25 MTF Cohort)
This mini-grant supports the purchase of MiniPCR Pullits to facilitate the implementation of the CRISPR-based curriculum developed as part of the Master Teacher Fellowship program.

Maaike Vollebregt
ABE The Netherlands (2024–25 MTF Cohort)
This mini-grant supports the development of methods that allow students to detect DNA damage caused by microplastics in plant cells. The project also includes developing protocols to detect microplastic levels in animal cells and measure DNA damage caused by microplastics.

Sarah Yearby
ABE San Francisco Bay (2024–25 MTF Cohort)
This mini-grant supports the purchase of a spectrophotometer and protein quantification reagents to make her project on protein detection in milk samples more accessible and feasible. Sarah Yearby also aims to provide in-school professional development sessions to train teachers at her school and share the equipment with them.