9452386 Kowles Laboratory capabilities in upper division biology core courses and the undergraduate student research program have been improved and diversified by the acquisition of equipment for conducting experiments that require precisely controlled environments. The added instrumentation includes a control chamber, floor model incubator shaker, shaker water bath, thermocycler, DNA sequencing apparatus, and an electroporation system. Laboratory activities added to the curriculum include: bacteria transformation, plasmid preparation, DNA sequencing, gene amplification and transient expression, and RNase protection in molecular biology; studies in protein synthesis, protein isolation, and cellular metabolism in biochemistry; cellular ATP determination and the dynamics of cell proliferation in cell biology; and a number of qualitative and quantitative techniques for undergraduate research projects.
