Instrumentation for Undergraduate Lab Instruction in Molecular Cell Biology Using Non-Radioactive Labels and Computer Data Analysis

准备本科生在生物科学的职业生涯需要一个实验室丰富的课程，其中包括与当前技术的实践经验。 细胞和分子生物学中的许多方法涉及暴露于有毒和放射性化学物质。 新仪器是围绕非放射性、无毒方法重新设计生物科学课程的努力的一部分。 教导核酸和蛋白质（包括PCR产物）、DNA、RNA和抗体印迹的定量、SDS-PAGE分析、DNA测序、蛋白酶和核酸酶测定、DNA结合蛋白的凝胶位移测定、CAT报告测定以及信号转导研究中使用的蛋白磷酸化测定的练习可以使用无害的荧光标记而不是毒性或放射性检测试剂来进行。 新仪器还提供计算机数据分析，旨在提高学生对生物学计算工具的理解，并帮助他们处理和报告数据。 提供与当前技术直接，更安全的经验，使学生能够扩大和加深他们对生物医学科学实验室应用的理解。 应大大减少学生，特别是女学生对潜在生殖危害的担忧。 当完全实施时，该计划可以消除对放射性同位素和溴化乙锭等有毒染料的需求，沿着相关的财务和环境成本。 这种方法在分子生物科学实验室教学应该是广泛适用的，是特别重要的部门的尝试，以增加学生准备成为教师谁选择采取生物学作为他们的科学，谁将更好地准备在这门科学的数量。

Preparing undergraduates for careers in the biological sciences requires a laboratory-rich curriculum, which includes hands-on experience with current technologies. Many methods in cell and molecular biology involve exposure to toxic and radioactive chemicals. The new instrumentation is part of an effort to redesign the bioscience curriculum around nonradioactive, nontoxic methodologies. Exercises that teach quantitation of nucleic acids and proteins (including PCR products), DNA, RNA, and antibody blotting, analysis of SDS-PAGE, DNA sequencing, protease and nuclease assays, gel-shift assays for DNA-binding proteins, CAT reporter assays, and protein phosphorylation assays used in signal transduction studies can be performed with nonhazardous fluorescent labels instead of toxic or radioactive detection reagents. The new instrumentation also provides for computer data analysis, designed to improve student understanding of computational tools in biology and help them to process and report their data. Providing for direct, safer experiences with current technologies allows students to broaden and deepen their understanding of laboratory applications in biomedical science. Concerns of students, especially women students, about potential reproductive hazards should be significantly reduced. When fully implemented, the program can eliminate the need for radioisotopes and toxic dyes like ethidium bromide, along with their associated financial and environmental costs. This approach to laboratory instruction in the molecular biosciences should be broadly applicable and is particularly important for the department's attempts to increase the number of students preparing to be teachers who opt to take biology as their science and who will be better prepared in this science..