An undergraduate course in experimental biochemistry is revitalized by integrating modern biochemical research into an existing core laboratory curriculum. The project is designed around investigation of TBP, a protein transcription factor. The experiments consist of purifying a cloned fusion protein, and then testing the protein for transcriptional activity against wild type and mutant templates by measurement of mRNA synthesis in vitro, and for DNA-protein interactions in gel electrophoresis mobility-shift assays using probes generated by the PCR technique.
