Genomics in the Undergraduate Curriculum: Ion Transport and Cell Communication

基因组学和生物信息学是介于传统细胞和分子生物学与计算机科学之间的新兴研究领域。 人类基因组计划的大规模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，特别是文科院校的课程。该项目有三个部分，旨在弥补这一不足。 (1)它增加了新的方法，目前所使用的本科研究生在主要研究者的研究实验室的方法。 (2)教学博士后研究员提供必要的专业知识，在数据分析的研究经验，同时丰富课程与生物信息学领域的课程设置，并获得宝贵的课堂经验。 （3）这些课程和其他课程的学生正在被帮助设计他们的学期项目的演示文稿，带到高中课堂，帮助揭开技术的神秘面纱，同时传达其发现的兴奋。 私家侦探的研究解决了培养的动物细胞中离子稳态与细胞利用缝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，与细胞的生理学的其余部分高度整合，并且是正常细胞功能所必需的。 二十多年来，该实验室已经证明，通过用药物哇巴因治疗各种细胞来阻止钠泵的正常功能，会导致细胞通讯的可逆损失。 PI正在将DNA微阵列技术引入她的实验室，为分析基因表达的全球模式创造条件。 这项技术，通常超出了本科生或文科院校，是可能在圣十字，因为P.I的参与基因组联盟积极教学（GCAT），36个本科院校之间的合作。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。数据张贴在FTP网站上，联合体的任何成员都可以访问这些数据进行分析。这些研究最初使用的是酵母，因为它们在规定的条件下易于大量生长，微阵列很容易获得，P.I.她的学生已经在这项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中的基因表达，包括成纤维细胞和上皮细胞，以了解用哇巴因、醛固酮或其他细胞通讯的刺激剂或抑制剂处理的细胞中的基因表达模式。结果将确定基因的表达上升或福尔斯作为改变离子稳态的结果，使他们成为进一步研究的候选人作为调节细胞通讯。 该项目充分利用了P.I.她在研究和本科教育方面的长期专业知识，支持她作为学生和教师的导师的工作。因此，它的影响不仅限于收集研究成果，而且增加了宝贵的好处。 更多的本科生通过沉浸在这一新的研究工作中，被刺激到正在进行的生物学研究。博士后研究员被指导发展为教师学者模式的未来教师。高中生了解现代生物学中许多令人兴奋的发展的第一手资料，本科生在学校演讲中磨练他们与社会分享知识的技能。圣十字科学的基础设施正在通过与基因组学应用于细胞间通讯问题相关的协作性、跨学科活动的存在而得到丰富。

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.