TUES: Transforming Cell Biology and Organic Chemistry through Incorporation of the HDACi Cancer Therapeutic Laboratory Project

在这个项目中，一个由两名生物学家和两名有机化学家组成的团队正在整合两门课程的实验室，细胞生物学和有机化学II。 在跨学科小组中工作的学生计划并执行与已知的组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂相关的化合物的合成。 这种酶在癌细胞中的表达比在正常细胞中更活跃，因此发现有效的抑制剂可能会导致新的化疗药物。 一旦学生团队合成并表征了潜在的抑制剂，他们将测试它对培养的动物细胞生长的抑制作用，这是细胞毒性的一个指标。 来自几个团队的学生将受益于课堂上其他团队的结果，有趣的发现将发表在同行评审的期刊上并在会议上发表。 通过项目实验室整合不同部门课程的模式将引起其他机构教师和学生的兴趣。

In this project a team of two biologists and two organic chemists is integrating the laboratories for two of their courses, Cell Biology and Organic Chemistry II. Students working in interdisciplinary teams plan and execute the synthesis of a compound related to a known inhibitor of the enzyme histone deacetylase. This enzyme tends to be expressed more actively in cancer cells than in their normal counterparts, so discovery of potent inhibitors might lead to new chemotherapeutic drugs. Once the student team has synthesized and characterized the potential inhibitor, they will test it for inhibition of growth of cultured animal cells, an indicator of cell toxicity. Students from several teams will benefit from learning of the results of other teams in the class, and interesting findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences. The model of integrating courses in different departments through project laboratories is one that will interest faculty and students at other institutions.