This session introduces bioinformatics using a case study of pathogenic bacterial identification via a Howard Hughes Medical Institute's virtual lab and NCBI web database searches. Another goal is to get the students thinking, writing and talking about the impact of the human genome project. Our students do the exercise independently coming together in the laboratory to present and discuss their findings--this feature makes the exercise feasible for large or small classes with limited laboratory computer resources. The sub-theme of this session is the use of virtual laboratories (vlabs) re-enforcing scientific concepts and methods to supplement lectures, tutorials or "wet" labs.

This educational journal article addresses the implementation of bioinformatics in the classroom. The author explains how bioinformatics could play a key role for science students pursuing higher education, foster inquiry learning of content that has often been taught in a dry manner, provide the thread that ties classes together, improve biology teaching, enhance the learning of biotech issues and ethics, expose students to real-world science, and significantly help to reform biology teaching and improve learning. The article includes links to bioinformatics resources, information about how to get involved in bioinformatics, and a glossary of terms.

This workshop, which is half wet lab and half Internet lab, uses DNA sequences to examine the relatedness of different species. DNA from several insect and/or fish species are compared. This chapter includes instructions for extracting DNA from gels and making PCR products. We prepare PCR products to send to a computerized automated sequencing facility. (No radioisotopes are used in this sequencing!) We recover sequence from the facility over the Web as four-color graphics on a computer screen and as text. We make pair-wise DNA sequence comparisons between species with BLAST2 and multi-species comparisons with MultAlin. We see substitutions, insertions, and deletions. Then we make a distance-based evolutionary tree with GeneBee.

Subject uses molecular genetics to examine how Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria can be used in novel and relevant bioconversion processes, for example, to synthesize precursors to the drug Crixivan, a potent inhibitor of HIV replication, or to synthesize metabolites as food supplements. Students engage in independent research projects to address questions relating to these processess. Techniques used include plasmid manipulation, genetic complementation, mutagenesis, PCR, and DNA sequencing, enzyme assays, and gene expression studies. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided. Also referred to as the Microbial Genetics Project Lab, this is a hands-on research course designed to introduce the student to the strategies and challenges associated with microbiology research. Students take on independent and original research projects that are designed to be instructive with the goal of advancing a specific field of research in microbiology.

" In this class, students engage in independent research projects to probe various aspects of the physiology of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14, an opportunistic pathogen isolated from the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. Students use molecular genetics to examine survival in stationary phase, antibiotic resistance, phase variation, toxin production, and secondary metabolite production. Projects aim to discover the molecular basis for these processes using both classical and cutting-edge techniques. These include plasmid manipulation, genetic complementation, mutagenesis, PCR, DNA sequencing, enzyme assays, and gene expression studies. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication are also emphasized. WARNING NOTICE The experiments described in these materials are potentially hazardous and require a high level of safety training, special facilities and equipment, and supervision by appropriate individuals. You bear the sole responsibility, liability, and risk for the implementation of such safety procedures and measures. MIT shall have no responsibility, liability, or risk for the content or implementation of any of the material presented. Legal Notice "

This set of three activities uses Biology Workbench, a website that brings together sequence databases and online software for searching databases, aligning sequences, and creating inferred phylogenetic trees. The first two activities explore the diversity of preproinsulin sequences across species. Students use the Student Version of Biology Workbench and search databases by keyword in the first activity, while, in the second, students use the actual Biology Workbench and search the databases using a sequence. The third activity illustrates how an alignment created with Workbench can be used to color-code a 3-D model of a protein using the online software Protein Explorer.