Hood Biology Students Create a Different Type of Tasting Room

The Tasting Room is one of Downtown Frederick's best-known restaurants, but did you know Hood’s Department of Biology has a Tasting Room too?

During the spring 2026 semester, Hood biology students in BIOL 203 participated in a lab activity to determine if their genetic makeup gives them the ability to taste a bitter compound called Phenylthiocarbamide, or PTC. In addition to the taste testing, students are isolating their own DNA via their cheek cells to relate their ability to taste or not taste to their genetic makeup.

"I appreciated how we got to complete a hands-on experiment with a variety of equipment to celebrate our own genetics,” said Meg Wilcox ’28, a biology student with a chemistry minor.

The Wednesday lab from 2:10 p.m. to 5 p.m. is taught by Emma Bowers, and the Tuesday and Thursday lectures from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. is taught by Professor of Biology Oney Smith, Ph.D. “Dr. Emma Bowers and I joked this semester that we were the ‘servers’ for the ‘BIOL 203 Tasting Room,’” Smith said. “While we knew we couldn’t rival the real Tasting Room in downtown Frederick, we hope our students still enjoyed a five-star learning experience — because we certainly did as lab instructors.”

"As a Nursing major with a minor in Biology, this has been my sixth lab course at Hood,” said Adam Barnhart ’28. “The PTC tasting lab is one of my favorites. The lab instructors, Dr. Emma Bowers and Dr. Oney Smith, have made the activity fun and very interesting."