Functional Genome Analysis by RNAi: Phase II Curriculum Dissemination and Evaluation

生物科学（61）第二阶段CCLI项目是传播基于RNA干扰（RNAi）的实验和计算机实验室，可以帮助学生整合基因和基因组分析的关键概念。该计划的重点是一套实验室/生物信息学实验开发与第一阶段的资金，探索RNAi在模式生物秀丽隐杆线虫。实验可以整合到现有课程中，为新课程提供基础，或作为学生研究项目的基础。在两年的任期内，该项目在全国8个地点举办了为期一周的研讨会，直接接触了204名教师，其中许多人在社区学院和少数民族服务机构，帮助他们开发出最好地将这些实验纳入各种机构环境的方法。该计划包括重要的后续行动和支持，以鼓励实施，以及对参与者将这些活动和概念纳入其课程的机制进行纵向评估，以及对学生效果的实验研究。在一项独特的能力建设工作中，研讨会参与者将合作开发靶向载体，使大约100个秀丽隐杆线虫基因沉默，这些基因将在dalc保存，并免费分发给任何感兴趣的教师，用于学生项目。这个项目的智力价值在于所制作的材料的智力质量，以及它们在帮助教师保持他们的课程的最新和对他们所呈现的教学法和科学的新发展作出反应方面所遇到的挑战。在秀丽隐杆线虫中进行RNAi非常简单。任何选择的基因都可以通过喂食蠕虫来“沉默”，这些细菌表达与目标基因部分对应的双链RNA。秀丽隐杆线虫/RNAi系统为学生提供了几乎前所未有的机会，从格式化的实验转向完全开放式的项目和探索。只要配备一台电脑、解剖显微镜、DNA热循环器、移液器和凝胶电泳室，学生就可以从基因组序列（包括人类同源物）“向后”工作，开发靶向构建物，并直接观察基因沉默的表型效应。更广泛的影响。在传统的少数民族机构举办一半的讲习班将确保代表性不足的群体的高度参与。每个实验的互联网站点、定制的生物信息学工具和即将出版的实验教材《基因组科学》（计划2008年由CSHL出版社出版）都支持广泛的课堂实施。

Biological Sciences (61) This Phase 2 CCLI project is disseminating experiment- and computer-based laboratories on RNA interference (RNAi) that can help students integrate key concepts of gene and genome analysis. The program focuses on a set of lab/bioinformatics experiments developed with Phase I funding that explore RNAi in the model organism C. elegans. The experiments can be integrated into existing courses, provide the basis for new courses, or serve as the foundation for student research projects. Over its two-year term, the project is reaching 204 faculty directly, many of them at community colleges and minority serving institutions, at week-long workshops conducted at 8 sites nationwide, helping them develop approaches to best include these experiments in a variety of institutional settings. The program includes significant follow-up and support to encourage implementation as well as longitudinal assessment of participants'' mechanisms for including these activities and concepts in their courses and an experimental study of student effects. In a unique capacity-building effort, workshop participants will collaborate to develop targeting vectors to silence approximately 100 C. elegans genes, which will be maintained at the DNALC and distributed free-of-charge to any interested faculty for use in student projects. Intellectual Merit The intellectual merit of this project resides in the intellectual quality of the materials being produced and the challenges they meet in helping faculty keep their courses current and responsive to new developments in both pedagogy and the science they are presenting. RNAi is amazingly simple to perform in C. elegans. Any gene of choice can be "silenced" merely by feeding worms bacteria that express double-stranded RNA that corresponds to part of the targeted gene. The C. elegans/RNAi system offers almost unprecedented opportunities for students to move from formatted experiments to entirely open-ended projects and explorations. Equipped with little more than a computer, dissecting microscope, DNA thermal cycler, pipettes, and a gel electrophoresis chamber, students can work "backwards" from genome sequence (including human homologs) to develop targeting constructs and directly observe the phenotypic effects of gene silencing. Broader Impact. Holding half of the workshops at traditionally minority institutions will ensure high participation by underrepresented groups. Internet sites for each experiment, custom bioinformatics tools, and the forthcoming laboratory text, Genome Science (scheduled for 2008 publication by CSHL Press) all support broad classroom implementation.