Equipment for a Modern Undergraduate Molecular Genetics Laboratory

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This department is using the present award to procure the equipment needed for teaching of modern nucleic acid research, providing students an opportunity to explore such modern research techniques as recombinant DNA technology and protein analysis. DNA electrophoresis and protein gel electrophoresis units along with such supportive equipment needed in work with recombinant DNA as a micro- centrifuge, micropipetters, a UV transilluminator, speed vac, vacuum oven, shaker incubator, sonicator, and cold cabinet are being used by students in a new course, Molecular Genetics, as well as in two already established core courses. Students learn protein chemistry, DNA structure, RNA expression, and other protocols used in recombinant DNA technology. In a five-year period about 250 undergraduates involved in an average of three to four courses per student will have extensive hands-on experience with this equipment. This project is one result of the university's positive steps toward providing its students with classes in the rapidly expanding field of genetic engineering and recombinant DNA technology. A biology faculty member with expertise in these fields, hired in 1987, is designing the new Molecular Genetics course. The grantee institution is matching the NSF award with an equal sum obtained from non-Federal sources.