Honors Introduction to Molecular Biology & Biochemistry Research
694:215

Overview

Biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics have become integrated, interdependent disciplines in part due to the exciting advances that have occurred in molecular biology over the last 25 years.  Biochemists often use molecular biological approaches, and molecular biologists use biochemical approaches.  Molecular biology and biochemistry are best taught through “hands on” research.  It is therefore the aim of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (MBB) to make undergraduate research an integral part of the education of our students.  MBB undergraduates spend several years pursuing an independent research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor that will result in an undergraduate thesis.  A central component of the MBB curricula is the Introduction to Research in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry (694:315) course, which is used to train students in the basic molecular biology and biochemistry techniques and expose them to many of the joys and problems of real research.  Over the past 15 years, we have trained over 800 students in the 315 course and these students have gone on to perform independent research projects in laboratories at Rutgers and UMDNJ.  The majority of these students have continued with graduate or medical training in the biological sciences or have found research positions in academia or industry. 

The 315 course has usually been taken by Juniors before they peruse research projects during their senior year.  We have found that many of the most successful and rewarding research projects were performed by students who started as sophomores and freshmen and continued their research projects through to their senior year.  To encourage more students to take advantage of research opportunities earlier in their education at Rutgers,  a special version of the Introduction to Research in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry course (694:215) will be offered in the Fall semester that is specifically targeted to Honors first year students who are interested in biomedical research. 

Registration for 694:215 will only be allowed to Honors Freshmen students who have placed out of the 119:101/102 General Biology courses by passing (4 or 5) the Biology AP exams.  Enrollment will be limited to 30 students because of laboratory space and resources.  

We have designed this course to give students the theoretical background and practical experience with many of the techniques that will likely be used during an undergraduate research project.  We will also provide assistance to help students identify research labs that they may be interested in. 

The 694:215 course will fulfill the 694:315 course requirement for MBB majors or the 447:315 course for Genetics majors.  The 694:215 course will also fulfill the science elective requirements for those students that decide to pursue other science or non-science majors.   

In designing the Introduction to Research in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry courses, we wanted to avoid the problems of other lab courses in which the experimental outcome is already known and the aim of the laboratory exercises is to simply reproduce the expected results as closely as possible.  Students will therefore carry out a research project for which the results are unknown and the outcome could potentially lead to new and exciting avenues of research.   Since the outcomes of the research in the course is often unknown the course instructor, lab coordinator and a teaching assistant will be present during all the labs, which will provide extensive opportunities for interactions with the professors teaching the course.

The Project:  After some initial training in techniques commonly used in molecular biology, students will work on their main research project. The project involves isolating mutants in a transcriptional regulatory protein in yeast. Students will perform a genetic selection for the mutants and then use different assays to determine how the mutations affect transcriptional silencing and repression of genes in yeast. The DNA sequences of the mutants will be determined and the students will derive the predicted change in the protein sequence. Students will then map their mutation on a model of the protein structure and hypothesize how it will affect the protein's activity. There will also be discussions about research presentations and finding a research lab to do independent research projects as an undergraduate at Rutgers.

Reading Material: All lecture and laboratory notes will be posted on the course web site. The laboratory notes contain the protocols you will performing the lab. It is essential that you come to the lab with a hard copy of the lab notes. Students that forget their notes will not be able to take the lab. It is essential that in order for your lab work to run smoothly and for completion of the required tasks, it is essential that you understand your laboratory experiments before you enter the lab.  Therefore, you should read your Lab Manual before coming to each class. Figures used in the lectures are also posted on the Sakai site.

Office Hours: This course is designed to provide students with a unique, specialized laboratory experience. Thus, course participants are likely to require individualized attention at irregular and unpredictable intervals.  In order to accommodate this unusual situation, the instructors have arranged to be as accessible as possible.  Therefore, we are not restricting you to pre-scheduled office hours; instead, students are encouraged to email or call us to make an appointment if you have problems or questions.  We are always here during the week and most of us are available on line at some points on nights and weekends. 

Course Instructor: Dr. Andrew Vershon, Waksman Rm. 234, 445-2905        vershon@waksman.rutgers.edu

Lab Coordinator: Dr. Janet Mead, Waksman Rm. 19, 445-4661 mead@waksman.rutgers.edu

Grading in 215:
Exams                                                    30%
Quizzes                                                   30%
Clickers                                                   20%
Presentation of results, report                  20% 

Exams will be in class and will account for 30% of the grade.  The exams will focus on the material covered in the lectures and assigned reading. 

Quizzes: Brief, unannounced quizzes will be given at the beginning of lectures to test your understanding of the lecture material covered in the previous week and the lab exercises planned for the upcoming week. these will account for 30% of your grade.

Clickers:  Several times during each lecture there will be questions that the students will respond to using the I-clicker response systems.  Many of these responses will be graded.  The accumulated scores will account for 20% of the total grade.  Correct answers will account for 3 points while wrong answers will account for 1 point.  Grades for lectures with the two lowest scores will be dropped.  If you miss a class it will be one of your scores that is dropped. It is your responsibility to bring your clicker to each class and keep it in working order. 

Presentation of Results: At the end of the course each student will give a 5 minute presentation of their results and interpretation of the data.  The presentation of your results will account for 25% of the grade.  A copy of your Powerpoint presentation is due to by 9:00 AM on Dec 8, 2009 Failure to turn in these materials will result in a lower presentation grade.  Remember, these are new experiments!  There is no right or wrong to your results or analysis of the data and so you will not be graded on whether or not the experiment fails or that there were no “correct” results.

You will also turn in a Lab Report by 9:00 AM Dec 8, 2009. Your lab report will contain the data (plate and gel figures, Sequence alignments and a picture of the structure) that you generated during the course and your interpretation of the results.

Groups: Collaborations in science are usually very beneficial, if not unavoidable.  If you examine any recent scientific journal you will find that most research articles are by a group of people from the same lab or by several different groups that work in collaboration to conduct the research.  Each member of a group adds experience, reagents, or effort to a project that would otherwise be very difficult for one person to perform on their own. 

Contact Dr. Andrew Vershon for more information about the course