Course catalog · GW Wizards (Grades 8–11)

Find the mutation hiding in a patient's DNA, trace what it breaks, and make the case for a treatment.

Build DNA with your hands and translate a mystery gene into the protein it makes. Work patient cases as a genetic disease detective. Compare the new treatments head to head, gene editing with CRISPR, gene replacement and RNA medicines, and debate whether we should edit human genes at all. A few of these treatments are already in hospitals; some cost crores per patient, so who gets them is part of the science too. It starts from zero: school science is enough.

Students drawing a poster together on a long desk, GSP'26

Taught by Berty Ashley, Senior Scientist, DART Bangalore · Quiz columnist, The Hindu · TEDx speaker. Meet all the mentors

The course, in a minute

₹1,70,000 ₹2,10,000, GST included. Early-bird till 31 Dec 2026.

9–29 May 2027.

Take the free GenWise Assessment Apply for GSP'27

Free · 20 questions · 35 minutes

Pay ₹40,000 to hold a seat. Change your mind until 28 February 2027 and all of it comes back. The refund terms

Facilitator	Berty Ashley
Duration	3 weeks
Teaching hours	90+
Grade	Grades 8–11 (as of 2027–28)

What you will do

From a single wrong letter in DNA to the disease it causes, and the treatments now reaching hospitals.

Week by week

01
The language of life
How cells, DNA, RNA and proteins actually work, built and decoded with your own hands.
- From microscopes to the double helix
- Build DNA
- How cells make proteins
- Translate a mystery gene
02
When genes go wrong
How mutations cause disease, and the tools scientists use to read, copy and edit DNA.
- How a mutation causes a disease
- Genetic disease detective
- PCR, sequencing and CRISPR
- Debate: should we edit genes?
03
From genome to patient
The newest treatments, and how to tell real progress from hype.
- Gene editing, gene replacement and RNA medicines
- Stem cells: what's real and what's hype
- The treatment comparison challenge
- The Molecular Medicine Symposium

Questions to wrestle with

If almost every cell in your body has the same DNA, why is a brain cell not a skin cell?
Can you fix a broken gene without touching the DNA at all?
Just because we can edit a human gene, should we?

Page two

How does this course help your child?

Innovative pedagogy

Every few hours the lesson turns into something you do: an experiment, a role-play, a patient case or a debate.

Academic acceleration

Molecular biology and biotechnology well beyond the school syllabus, from first principles to the treatments in today's news.

Cognitive skillsets

Tracing cause and effect
Reasoning from evidence
Weighing ethics
Explaining science clearly

Peer networks

Teams present patient cases and defend them before a review board.

It ends with

The Molecular Medicine Symposium at the open day. Each team takes a patient case, finds the gene and the mutation, writes a case report, proposes a treatment, and defends it, ethics included, before a review board.

May program · 9–29 May 2027 · MAHE Manipal

Like every GSP course: three hours each morning, hands-on afternoons, a real artifact at the open day, and one residential coach or teaching assistant for every five students. The full day, hour by hour

Prerequisites: None. The course starts from zero.

Download the two-page course sheet (PDF)

Sounds like your kid?

Apply and tell us Inside the Helix caught their eye — the call starts from there.

Take the free GenWise Assessment Apply for GSP'27 Or call +91 81238 77635