Teaching Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics in Community Colleges

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Project SummaryThis project is improving the instructional capabilities of community colleges in genomic technologies. The products of this project, through the efforts of and collaborations with community college instructors, are easily accessible and readily updated instructional materials as well as community college instructors who are prepared to use them. Previous efforts were extremely successful in helping to educate community college instructors on the basic technologies that impact biotechnology-related research and in helping them to integrate appropriate courses and laboratories into their curricula. This project is facilitating expansion of the work begun under the current program that established a regional coalition among community colleges and UC Davis focused on the development of educational activities in molecular biology, genomics, and related scientific disciplines. The program is developing core curriculum material for community college faculty in the areas of modern biotechnology, genomics, functional genomics, and bioinformatics. The program offers week-long summer institutes in Molecular Biology and Molecular Diagnostics in which the principles of molecular biology and molecular diagnostics and their application in biotechnology are introduced. A new institute titled Functional Genomics and bioinformatics is being initiated. Bioinformatics is a very timely and appropriate topic for community colleges as it builds on the present and expanding skills in molecular biology, which our previous efforts have helped to foster, and on the computer science emphasis already in place at most community colleges. It is clear that there will be many career opportunities for graduates with bioinformatics training in the new millenium. Texts, manuals, laboratory kits, and other instructional materials are being made available for community college and high school instructors. Where possible, material is downloadable from the program web site to allow easy acess and rapid dissemination. http://universityextension.ucdavis.edu/molbio/biotech,htin