Genomics in the Undergraduate Curriculum: Ion Transport and Cell Communication

基因组学和生物信息学是传统细胞和分子生物学与计算机科学相结合的新兴研究领域。人类基因组计划的巨额投资使这些领域成为可能，但这些领域尚未有效地纳入大多数生物学课程的课程，尤其是文理学院的课程。这个项目有三个部分，旨在弥补这一不足。(1)它为目前在首席研究员的研究实验室中使用的本科生研究方法增加了新的方法。(2)教学博士后为研究经验提供必要的数据分析专业知识，同时丰富生物信息学领域的课程设置，获得宝贵的课堂经验。(3)这些课程和其他课程的学生被帮助设计他们的学期项目的演示文稿，带到高中教室，帮助揭开这项技术的神秘面纱，同时传达其发现的兴奋之处。侦探她的研究解决了培养动物细胞中的离子稳态与细胞利用间隙连接进行交流的能力之间的关系。离子运输和细胞通讯都是进化上古老的，与细胞生理的其余部分高度结合，是正常细胞功能所必需的。在过去的二十年里，实验室已经证明，通过用药物瓦巴因治疗多种细胞来阻止钠泵的正常功能，会导致细胞通信的可逆丧失。PI正在将DNA微阵列技术引入她的实验室，以研究分析全球基因表达模式的条件。这项通常是本科生或文理学院无法企及的技术，在圣十字学院是可能的，因为pi参与了主动教学基因组联盟（GCAT），这是一个由36个本科院校合作的项目。大学研究人员提供的剩余微阵列以低成本提供给本科生使用，并在戴维森学院的中心设施进行分析。数据被发布到一个FTP站点，任何联盟成员都可以访问这些数据进行分析。这些研究最初使用酵母，因为它们很容易在规定的条件下大量生长，微阵列很容易获得，并且pi和她的学生已经在该技术的试点研究中证明了这项工作的可行性。一旦微阵列技术被很好地理解，它将被应用于人类和小鼠细胞的基因表达，包括成纤维细胞和上皮细胞，以了解基因表达的模式，在用瓦巴因、醛固酮或其他细胞通讯的兴奋剂或抑制剂处理的细胞。这些结果将识别出随着离子稳态变化而表达上升或下降的基因，使它们成为进一步研究细胞通讯调节因子的候选基因。这个项目充分利用了私家侦探的优势她在研究和本科教育方面的长期专长，支持她作为学生和教师导师的工作。因此，它的影响不仅限于收集研究成果，而且还增加了宝贵的好处。通过沉浸在这项新的研究工作中，更多的本科生被激发到正在进行的生物学研究中。指导博士后以教师学者的模式发展成为未来的教职员工。高中学生可以直接了解现代生物学中许多令人兴奋的发展，大学生在学校做报告时磨练他们与社会分享知识的技能。圣十字学院的科学基础设施正因基因组学应用于细胞间通讯问题的合作、跨学科活动而得到丰富。

Genomics and bioinformatics are newly emerging areas of study at the interface between traditional cell and molecular biology and computer science. Made possible by the massive investment in the Human Genome Project, these areas have not yet been effectively incorporated into the curriculum of most biology programs, particularly those at liberal arts colleges. This project has three parts, designed to remedy that lack. (1) It adds the new methods to the approaches currently used by undergraduate research students in the Principal Investigator's research laboratory. (2) A Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow is providing the necessary expertise in data analysis to the research experience while enriching the curriculum with course offerings in the area of bioinformatics and gaining valuable classroom experience. And (3) students in these and other courses are being assisted to design presentations of their term projects to take to high school classrooms, helping to demystify the technology while communicating the excitement of its findings. The P.I.'s research addresses the relationship between ion homeostasis in cultured animal cells and the cells' ability to communicate using gap junctions. Both ion transport and cell communication are evolutionarily ancient, highly integrated with the rest of the cell's physiology, and required for normal cell function. Over two decades, the laboratory has shown that preventing normal function of the sodium pump by treating a variety of cells with the drug ouabain causes a reversible loss in cell communication. The PI is introducing DNA microarray technology into her laboratory to work out conditions for analyzing global patterns of gene expression. This technology, normally beyond the reach of undergraduates or liberal arts colleges, is possible at Holy Cross because of the P.I's involvement in the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT), a collaboration among 36 undergraduate institutions. Surplus microarrays provided by university researchers are made available at low cost for use by undergraduates and analyzed at a central facility at Davidson College. Data are posted to an FTP site where they are accessible for analysis by any member of the consortium. These studies are using yeast initially because they are easy to grow in bulk under defined conditions, microarrays are readily available, and the P.I. and her students have demonstrated the feasibility of the work in pilot studies of the technology. Once the microarray technology is well understood, it will be applied to gene expression in human and mouse cells, both fibroblastic and epithelial, to understand the pattern of gene expression in cells treated with ouabain, aldosterone, or other stimulants or suppressants of cell communication. The results will identify genes whose expression rises or falls as a consequence of changing ion homeostasis, making them candidates for further study as regulators of cell communication. This project takes full advantage of the P.I.'s long-standing expertise both in research and in undergraduate education, supporting her work as a mentor of students and faculty. As such its impact is not limited to collecting research results, but has added valuable benefits. More undergraduate students are stimulated to ongoing study of biology through immersion in this new research effort. The Postdoctoral Fellow is mentored to develop as a future faculty member in the model of a teacher-scholar. High school students learn first-hand about many of the exciting developments in modern biology, and undergraduates giving school presentations hone their skills in sharing their knowledge with society. And the infrastructure of the sciences at Holy Cross is being enriched by the presence of the collaborative, interdisciplinary activities associated with application of genomics to the problem of cell-to-cell communication.