BIOL 19500 Year 1 Biology Lab:Phages to Folds

Sessions Offered:

Instructor(s):

Textbook(s):

none

Notes:

Format:

Mondays

1:30-5:20

Content:

The course will provide students an introduction into the world of scientific reserach within a real laboratory setting and work on active research projects.  Students will acquire the fundamental skills and concepts necessary to be successful as a biology major and as a research scientist.

This section will be an extension of the successful HHMI-funded SEA-PHAGES program which focuses on the discovery of new bacteriophages and characterization of their genome. A far majority of the bateriophage genes that are discovered have no known function or structure, therefore, in this section, students will learn how to use bioinformatics to study a gene sequence of their choice from the local SEA-PHAGES program.

Students will then clone their gene using the latest cloning techniques, express it using recombinant expression methods, purify it using metal affinity chromatography, and then perform structural characterization of their gene product using biophysical techniques.

The goal of each project will be to gain insight into the 3-dimensional fold of each of these mysterious novel phage genes.