Home
BIOC 413 Experimental Molecular Biology
Instructors:
Time and Location: Classes meet
for at 4-5 weeks on Tuesday and Thursday in the 2nd half
of spring semester from 1 - 5 p.m. in Biology Basement
Teaching Labs; lab begins the week after spring break
Prerequisites:
BIOS/BIOC 311: Advanced Experimental Biosciences or permission
of instructor.
Registration: You may register on Esther. Enrollment
is limited to 12 students.
General Course Description: This course
further advances record keeping and technical communication skills
that were emphasized in BIOC 311: Experimental Biosciences. This
lab course requires greater independence than BIOC 311 and BIOC
313. You will apply strategies in molecular biology to investigate
gene expression and function in Arabidopsis, with an emphasis
on experimental design, data analysis, and data interpretation.
You will gain experience in preparation of a scientific poster.
Preparation:
In preparation for class discussions,
everyone is expected to read appropriate background material (articles
are available in OWL-Space Resources). Additionally,
you must come to lab prepared--this requires
you to READ the
experimental protocols on the course web site BEFORE coming
to lab, not just print a copy of them and bring it with you.
Bring only the information you need to perform the experiments.
The procedures for each day are available from the Course Schedule
page, and you will be given any additional information in the
pre-lab meetings.
AIMS of Lab: This capstone laboratory
course is a true Project-Based Laboratory (PjBL), as modeled
after the labs designed by Ann Saterbak, Ph.D., in the Bioengineering
Department at Rice University: our "clients" will be BCB faculty
and/or collaborators in the Houston Medical Center. Our clients
will provide students with a source of RNA (e.g., cells or tissues)
and specify either a new target gene for primer design or an
existing target gene that needs troubleshooting. The timeline
from target identification to product analysis will be from March
to April. Over the course of approximately one month, student
teams will isolate total RNA and synthesize cDNA and will attempt
to design, validate, and optimize both gene-of-interest and normalizer
primer sets for qPCR using strategies that will help the protocol
meet Minimum Information to Publish Q-PCR Experiments (MIQE)
guidelines. At the end of the semester, deliverables include
1) laboratory notebook detailing primer design and the experimental
approaches and 2) poster summarizing findings. Client’s representative
will meet with students at the beginning of the project to identify
the target sequence specifications and provide cells or tissue
for RNA isolation and may also elect to
optionally meet with students at time of product delivery.
Scientific Poster:
Each team will prepare a scientific poster.
Assignments & Grading: Your
final grade will be based on your lab notebook (team), class participation and
lab performance (individual), poster (team),
poster Q/A (individual), and reflections (individual).
Copyright, Acknowledgements,
and Intended Use
Created by B. Beason (bbeason@rice.edu),
Rice University, 18 February 2013
Updated 7 March 2015