Biology 407L

Principles of Molecular Biology Laboratory

General Information

• Instructor: Dr. H. Gert de Couet (Edm 353, 956-9686)
• Laboratory: Th 1:30 to 5:30 (St. John 405)

Laboratory Topics

• Laboratory orientation, instruction and safety training (required attendance)
• PCR amplification, TA cloning, plasmid isolation and restriction analysis (2X)
• Genomic DNA isolation and restriction, running a gel for southern hybridization, southern transfer
• Preparation of template for sequencing reaction, sequencing reaction
• Preparation of sequencing gels, running
• Analysis of sequencing information using the DNASTAR program
• Protein expression, running SDS-PAGE (2X)
• Immunoblotting
• Protein modeling computer lab
• Final practical examination, with a choice of topics from:
  • Southern hybridization
  • Expression and western bloting
  • TA cloning up to the analysis of clones

Other Important Information

• This lab will begin on January 16, 1996. We will give overall lab instruction and safety training. The actual experiments will start from the second week. The presence at the first day of the class is required.
• The lab manual costs $5. All students are required to have a lab coat. It would be nice to have a name tag for everybody.
• Every lab will be preceded by a TA-student group interview, based on which students will be allowed to perform the experiment. The topic of interview is the material covered in the Introduction in the lab manual for each lab and additional readings provided in the lab manual.
• We will have quizzes, which will cover three or four labs. Dates will be announced. There will be no lab exams, but we will have a final practical lab exam at the end of the semester. Students will be asked to perform one of the experiments that was carried out during the semester. Prior to that we will have a TA-student group interview which will serve as an evaluation of student readiness to perform the final experiment.
• This is a Writing Intensive (WI) course. Students in small groups will be required to provide a lab report. The report has to provide the following sections:
  • Introduction
  • Experimental Design
  • Discussion (major focus)
  • Conclusions
• Grading System:
  • Interviews = 30%
  • Lab Reports = 30%
  • Quizzes = 20%
  • Work in the lab (TA evaluation) = 5%
  • Practical Final = 15%
• Satisfactory performance in this course requires significant student input and motivation. Many of the experiments will go overtime. Students are expected to be flexible (particularly Monday night, since there is no class after Biology 407L).

Previous Course Offerings

• Spring 1995