In an effort to enhance the educational experiences of undergraduate students in Chemistry, we have sought to integrate research projects in the Chemical Biology teaching laboratory. These have taken the form of phenotypic screening, structure-function studies that include site-directed mutagenesis and enzyme assays, and a bioinformatics experiment to annotate genes of unknown function. In the first meeting of the lab, we work on the basic skills of pipetting and sterile technique. The sterile technique exercise includes a zone-of-inhibition experiment in which we give students two bacterial strains of interest to our research and allow them to choose reagents in order to determine the extent of survival and therefore the phenotypes of the bacterial strains. The structure-function module is a five-week experiment that involves designing and constructing mutations in a protein and then assaying the resulting proteins for changes in activity. We have used computationally-predicted mutations as well as cancer-associated mutations in a number of different proteins. We recently incorporated a one-week bioinformatics experiment that involves identifying proteins of unknown function that are related to a standard protein of known, experimentally-determined function. The students then analyze the proteins in terms of sequence and structural similarities, generating homology models when needed. The residues in the proteins that are predicted to be important for activity are compared to gain insights into the likelihood of these proteins having similar functions. Our goal is to test these predictions experimentally. Students write in-depth reports for each experiment and receive detailed feedback; this course satisfies the university requirement of a writing-intensive course. Student surveys indicate that students gain an appreciation for the importance of writing to better understand and explain science as part of this course.

Integrating research and education in chemical biology

251st National Meeting (2016)

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