The current trend towards a more mechanistic or molecular understanding of living systems has unified many diverse fields of biology. Because of this, all biology majors now need to be aware of advances that previously were only taught in advanced genetics and molecular biology courses. In response to this need, the Department of Biology and Microbiology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is incorporating new exercises into the laboratories of to two required courses, Genetics and Cell Biology. In addition we have created a new track for biology majors in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Finally, the department approved the remodeling of a herbarium into a modern Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics Laboratory for undergraduate instruction. The equipment supplied by this award is being used in the courses taught in the Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics Laboratory. These include the laboratory sections of Genetics and Cell Biology as well as two electives, Molecular Biology and Plant Growth and Development. The improvements in these courses are giving all biology majors experience in many of the most current technologies used in research and industry today. These include cloning, tissue culture, molecular diagnostics, and the expression of recombinant proteins. In addition, students are now able to perform experiments on topics that were previously only covered in lecture, such as developmental biology, cellular differentiation and RFLP analysis. The equipment is dramatically reforming core courses which serve over 400 students a year.
