Home page of Dr. David S. Richard

Course description and objectives
The major objective of this lab course is to familiarize you with some of the laboratory techniques used by cell biologists. In addition, we will focus on the skills involved in designing, conducting, and analyzing experiments in this field. During the semester we will be conducting a number of short experiments which utilize techniques that are used to study proteins and RNA, including electrophoresis, column chromatography, ELISA, immunofluorescence PCR and Western blotting. These techniques are applicable to a range of biological sub disciplines such as developmental biology, immunology, molecular biology as well as to cell biology.

Text
There is no text for the lab. Instead, I will distribute or post handouts on the web that describe the experiments you will be conducting. You must have some kind of notebook to use to record your data, and take notes about the procedures, etc, but I will not collect these. Calculators and rulers will also be necessary for analyzing results for some labs.

Lab format
For some of the labs, you will work in pairs, and for some labs, you will work in slightly larger groups. Some of the experiments for this course require specialized equipment, making it difficult for everyone to complete the lab at the same time. Because of this, and because cell biology experiments do not often fit neatly into a three hour time period, you should expect to spend time outside the scheduled lab period working on your experiment.

Course requirements and grading
Your grade in the course will be based on your written analysis of the experiments, and your performance in the lab. For all experiments you will be required to answer a set of questions concerning the procedures involved, your results, and your interpretations of the results. The answers will be individually written and must be typed. These assignments are due one week after the lab is completed, and will comprise 75% of your final grade.

The final 25% of your grade will be based on evaluations of both your group and individual performance in the lab. These evaluations will be based upon your assessment of each other (10%) and my assessment of your participation, performance and portfolio (15%). Materials might include a reflection of skills and knowledge development during this course, and examples of actual lab write-ups.

Policies

Each unexcused absence will lower your final grade one letter grade. There are no make-ups for labs missed. If you think that there is a problem with attendance, talk to me earlier rather than later!

Academic honesty is expected, and violations will be dealt with according to the regulations in your student handbook. Although I encourage you to discuss your results, study questions, and lab reports with your classmates, I expect that the writing (with the exception of the group assignment) will be done entirely on your own. Therefore, be especially careful with regard to the extent of your interactions. The requirements for each lab report will be discussed each week.

Lab schedule
We will attempt to adhere to the following lab schedule. Not all of the exercises can be completed within a three-hour period so you will have to be flexible.  Assignments in italics, weight in bold

•  
  • Sept 1: Introductory meeting, micropipetting exercise. No written assignment 
  • Sept 8: Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Materials and methods, results (due next week)(10%)
  • Sept 15: Protein fingerprinting. Worksheets  (due next week) (5%)
  • Sept 22: Western Blotting of Drosophila yolk proteins and the insulin-signaling pathway protein CHICO-week 1. No written assignment
  • Sept 29: Western Blotting of Drosophila yolk proteins and the insulin-signaling pathway protein CHICO-week 2. Materials and methods, results  (due next week) (10%)
  • Oct 6: Reverse-transcriptase and Real Time PCR of the chico transcript-week 1. No written assignment 
  • Oct 13: Reverse-transcriptase and Real Time PCR of the chico transcript-week 2. Materials and methods, results (due next week) (10%)
  • Oct 20: Fall Break
  • Oct 27: Laser confocal immunofluorescence microscopy -week 1 No written assignment
  • Nov 3: Laser confocal immunofluorescence microscopy -week 2 Materials and methods, results  (due next week) (10%)
  • Nov 10: TBA
  • Nov 17: ELISA. Worksheet. (5%)
  Final group paper on Drosophila Due.  Combined M&M, results and discussion due this week. (15%)

• Nov 24: No lab.  Thanksgiving. 
• Dec 1: Affinity chromatography Worksheet (5%)
• Dec 8: Take home experimental design (5%), Evaluations. (25%)