Integration of Laboratory Exercises in Development and Neurobiology Courses Using the Xenopus Oocyte Expression System

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Carole L. Browne DUE 9551615 Wake Forest University FY1995 $ 44,000 Winston-Salem, NC 27109 ILI - Instrumentation Project: Life Sciences Title: Development and Neurobiology Courses integrated Using the Xenopus Oocyte Expression System Portions of the Development and Neurobiology courses are being integrated with collaborative laboratory exercises. The laboratory exercises involve the use of the Xenopus oocyte expression system to study the function of specific membrane receptors and voltage-activated channels. Poly(A)+mRNA for brain proteins are injected into Xenopus oocytes, and the oocytes are assayed for expression of brain proteins. Patch clamping is used to determine whether the expressed proteins are functional in the oocyte system. The proposed project is innovative in its interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to undergraduate teaching, and in its use of highly sophisticated molecular biological and biophysical techniques in the undergraduate teaching laboratory. Students learn first hand how these techniques have been used to achieve a new level of understanding of both development and neurobiology. The laboratories are investigative, in that students must design experiments based on their knowledge of receptors and channels and then carry out those experiments using the oocyte expression system.