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

生物科学(61)这个第二阶段的CCLI项目正在传播关于RNA干扰(RNAi)的实验和基于计算机的实验室，这些实验室可以帮助学生整合基因和基因组分析的关键概念。该计划的重点是一系列实验室/生物信息学实验，这些实验是由第一阶段资金开发的，目的是探索模式生物线虫中的RNAi。这些实验可以整合到现有的课程中，为新课程提供基础，或者作为学生研究项目的基础。在为期两年的时间里，该项目在全国8个地点举办了为期一周的研讨会，直接接触到204名教师，其中许多人在社区大学和少数族裔服务机构，帮助他们制定方法，最好地将这些实验纳入各种机构环境中。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的纵向评估，以及对学生影响的实验研究。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，以沉默大约100个线虫基因，这些基因将被保存在DNALC，并免费分发给任何感兴趣的教职员工，供学生项目使用。智力价值这个项目的智力价值在于正在制作的材料的智力质量，以及他们在帮助教师保持他们的课程与时俱进，并对他们所展示的教育学和科学的新发展做出反应方面所遇到的挑战。RNAi在线虫中的执行简单得令人惊讶。任何选择的基因都可以通过喂食表达与目标基因部分对应的双链RNA的蠕虫细菌来“沉默”。线虫/RNAi系统为学生提供了几乎前所未有的机会，让他们从格式化的实验转向完全开放的项目和探索。只需配备一台计算机、解剖显微镜、DNA热循环仪、移液管和凝胶电泳室，学生们就可以从基因组序列(包括人类同源物)向后工作，开发靶向构建体，并直接观察基因沉默的表型效应。更广泛的影响。在传统的少数群体机构举办一半的讲习班将确保代表人数不足的群体的高参与度。每个实验的互联网站、定制的生物信息学工具以及即将出版的实验室文本《基因组科学》(由CSHL出版社计划于2008年出版)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.