The aim of the project is to give Microbiology, Medical Technology, and Pre-Medical students more "hands on" experience in the undergraduate laboratories, particularly using the kinds of modern equipment adopted by the pharmaceutical, food and medical industries, and by graduate schools. The new spectrophotometers are being used in the General Microbiology course to construct growth curves of bacteria, in the Parasitology course to perform experiments on enzyme kinetics, and in Immunology to carry out protein concentration determinations. Laminar flows, the inverted microscope, the CO2 incubator and the new centrifuge are being used in Immunology courses to manage Myeloma cells. The miniature and horizontal electrophoresis systems, the transilluminator, shaking incubator and microcentrifuge are used to construct physical maps of plasmids in the Cellular/Molecular Biology course. The Biostat fermenter is used in the Industrial Microbiology course for the continuous culture of various microorganisms of industrial interest. With the equipment provided through this project, students are learning to use electrophoresis, DNA recombination, enzyme kinetics, and ELISA techniques, and are mastering principles of tissue culture and the importance of Myeloma cells.
