A new curriculum for a one-semester biochemistry laboratory course has been designed and is being implemented by the Chemistry Department at California State University at Long Beach. The course is the capstone of a newly approved degree program leading to a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. The course emphasizes the acquisition of both experience with modern biochemical research techniques and instrumentation and the acquisition of problem-solving skills used in a research setting. The following equipment has been recently added to the department's instrumental holdings, specifically for use in this regard: a high speed centrifuge, three ultraviolet-visible scanning spectrophotometers, a high pressure liquid chromatography gradient system with variable wavelength detector, and three low pressure liquid chromatography systems. In addition to experiments on protein determination, enzyme kinetics, and gel electrophoresis, the isolation and characterization of hemoglobin, DNA, and messenger RNA, from the brine shrimp Artemia Salina, is carried out, together with experiments on the transformation of bacteria with recombinant plasmids and the isolation and characterization of the plasmids.
