This award provides funds to enhance the training in molecular biology provided for undergraduates in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Denver. The Department has developed a junior/senior laboratory course that will afford students both theoretical and practical "hands-on" experience with many of the important genetic engineering techniques currently employed in biotechnology. The focus is on laboratories which introduce the following techniques: preparation and fractionation of DNA, in vitro labeling and manipulation of genomic libraries. The uniqueness of the course is that it will allow students to isolate and study a previously unidentified gene from a free-living nematode. Instrumentation for the course includes centrifugation equipment, a spectrophotometer, and the electrophoresis and blotting units necessary for nucleic acid separation and identification. Most equipment will be used in several different laboratory exercises, reflecting the integrated and research-oriented nature of the course. The laboratory should materially improve the preparation of undergraduates for work in all phases of molecular biology and clearly extend their ability to design research projects and carry them out. The laboratory will also result in a published set of laboratory sequences that could be used at other universities. The grantee is match the award with non-Federal sources.
