Laboratory in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Catalog description

Students in this course will carry out experiments in protein biochemistry and molecular biology in an engaging laboratory environment. The protein biochemistry projects include protein purification (salt fractionation, ion exchange chromatography, affinity chromatography, size exclusion chromatography, and immunoprecipitation), protein analysis (SDS PAGE, BN PAGE, immunoblotting, and activity assays), and determination of enzyme kinetic parameters (Vmax, KM, and kcat). The molecular biology projects include CRISPR-mediated genome editing, nucleic acid purifications (plasmid DNA and RNA), gene expression analysis (RT-PCR and splicing), agarose gel electrophoresis, restriction endonuclease digestion, PCR, DNA cloning, transformation, and DNA sequence analysis. The course is organized around interesting projects that illustrate how different techniques are uniquely suited to answer a scientific question.