An Integrated Approach to the Undergraduate Biochemistry Laboratory

Abstract

Undergraduate biochemistry laboratories traditionally expose students to biochemical techniques through a series of independent and usually unrelated laboratory exercises. Efforts to reorganize and update the undergraduate biochemistry laboratory at Texas Tech University have centered upon the development of a series of laboratory experiments that focus on a single biological system, the complex 11 (succinate:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) of Escherichia coli. Students are provided a computer-aided research environment in which to gain practical training in molecular biology, protein purification and enzyme kinetics. The laboratory schedule includes exercises on the succinate dehydrogenase operon (sdh) DNA sequence, and experiments that deal with isolation and characterization of sdh operon DNA, extraction and purification of complex 11 and characterization of complex 11 subunit structure and kinetic parameters. This unified approach to the biochemistry teaching laboratory is specifically designed to impact undergraduate student preparation for future studies, providing exposure to fundamental techniques of biochemistry experimentation and simulating the focused, single system, environment of a research laboratory.

A survey on faculty perspectives on the transition to a biochemistry course‐based undergraduate research experience laboratory

“…Several well‐known biochemistry laboratory manuals have been published but I do not recall meeting any biochemists who teach their entire undergraduate biochemistry laboratory course from one of these texts. One or two experiments may be adopted, but we frequently develop our courses around projects that may connect to our research interests . The members of the team had all developed unique biochemistry teaching laboratory courses on their campuses and had all experimented to some extent with inquiry‐based learning.…”

“…A recent search of the literature revealed 19 different articles about noncookbook teaching laboratories containing elements of research dating back to a 1975 article by Paul Melius entitled, “A creative, research approach to the undergraduate biochemistry laboratory” . Many of the article titles included the words “integrated” “project‐based” or “project‐oriented” . In addition, many of these courses were designed around a single enzyme or protein The incorporation of research in the teaching setting has been widely advocated .…”

Isolation, purification, and characterization of bovine heart and yeast cytochromes c: An integrated biochemistry laboratory experience

“…Gels are fixed with a 40% methanol, 10% acetic acid, and 50% water solution for 30 min. After pouring off the fixing solution, the gel is stained with a minimum of 50 ml of Bio-Safe Coomassie Blue G-250 staining 1 The abbreviations used are: Tricine, N-[2-hydroxy-1,1-bis(hydroxymethyl)ethyl]glycine; CV, cyclic voltammetry; DPV, differential pulse voltammetry; SDS-PAGE, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.…”

“…Other laboratory courses with similar goals have been described in the literature [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Indeed there are many different proteins that can be utilized for such a laboratory course, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.…”

A single protein research integrated advanced biochemistry laboratory course: design and general outline

“…Typical biochemistry courses utilize 'cookbook' experiments to introduce handling and analysis of biological samples using chemical techniques. In recent years, variations have been introduced whereby more than one set of experiments have been integrated to teach interconnectedness of techniques [1,2]. However, a real research-based biochemistry laboratory course has not been dcveloped to this author's knowledge.…”