Biochemistry courses explore the mechanics of living systems at the molecular level. As such, the laboratory components of these courses focus on the production, isolation, purification, and characterization of molecules. Laboratory components of biochemistry courses generally serve two purposes. These are to introduce students to basic techniques used in the field, and to emphasize concepts that are discussed in the lecture component of the class. Unfortunately, many students treat the laboratories in these classes as a required activity that is separate from the rest of the class. They come to lab, daydream through the pre-laboratory lecture, follow the directions to complete the exercise, and think little about the molecules that are the focus of the day.<br/><br/>We have attempted to overcome these difficulties by providing students with a semester long research project in which they investigate a specific hypothesis. The protein of interest is 5,10-methenyltetrahydrofolate synthetase (MTHFS). Students are asked to develop a hypothesis about the role an amino acid in the active site of this enzyme; they then produce, isolate, purify, and characterize an enzyme that has their chosen amino acid mutated to alanine.<br/><br/>We have taught this laboratory course for over a decade at two separate institutions. Insights on successes, failures, and special challenges associated with this laboratory format will be discussed.

Implementation of a semester-long laboratory project investigating the roles of amino acids important to the catalytic activity of 5,10-methenyltetrahydrofolate synthetase (MTHFS)

254th National Meeting (2017)

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