ST Ambrose College A-Level biology students have completed a groundbreaking, transatlantic on-line link-up.

They have enjoyed series of on-line lectures by one of the pioneers of the Human Genome Project.

It is thought to be one of the first online collaborations by UK sixth formers with lecturers in leading American universities.

Six of the Hale Barns Catholic Grammar School's students have passed the 14 week eLearning Cloud course run by Eric Lander, a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School.

Lucy White, head of biology at St Ambrose College, said: “It was a great opportunity for our very best A-Level students, and allowed them to access scientific tools and content they would normally only have encountered when completing an undergraduate course at MIT."

Jack McIntyre, 18, who wants to read biomedicine at university, said: “The course has been massively helpful introducing me to ideas above and beyond the British A-Level and will hopefully enable me to get the A star I want in the summer’s examinations.”