SP16

Research Problems in Biology/Medicine

BIOL4915
Course description:
Faculty guided research for biology majors. This course may be offered with an integrated
service-learning experience.
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: BIOL 3305
You will select a faculty mentor based on their research interests and technical skill interests. A
listing of the three biology faculty members' research areas is below*. Additionally, you can
compete for a $500 SIRE (Supervised Independent Research Experience) award (more
information below). Please contact your potential faculty member so that you can both
get started developing your research idea. Each faculty member can take on a
maximum number of students, so your selection will be on a first-come, first-served
basis.
Ratna Gupta, Ph.D. (ratna.gupta@ololcollege.edu)
Inquiry-based GMO laboratory project: The aims are i) to introduce you to the science
behind biotechnology; ii) to discuss how advances in biotechnology affect our lives presently and
may do so in the future; and iii) to consider how entrepreneurs actually convert scientific
advances into concrete commercial or social changes.
In this part we will conduct experiments on one example of the many applications of
modern biotechnology i.e. the use of GMOs in the food production. Multiple positive and
negative experimental controls will be implemented followed by analysis and
interpretation of experimental results.
GMOs are organisms such as plants, animals and micro-organisms (bacteria, viruses, etc.),
the genetic characteristics of which have been modified artificially in order to give them a
new property (a plant's resistance to a disease or insect, increased crop productivity, a
plant's tolerance of a herbicide, etc.).
Each one of you will test grocery store food products (e.g., corn chips, vegetarian
sausages) for the presence of genetically modified food (GM food).
Specifically, we will learn different techniques such as DNA extraction, primer design, PCR,
ELISA and gel electrophoresis as well as utilize different equipment to detect the presence
of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by utilizing two different GMO associated DNA
sequences- the 35S promoter of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV 35S) and the
terminator of the nopaline synthase (NOS) gene of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
One or both of these sequences are present in most of the genetically modified crops that
are approved for distribution in North America, Asia, and Europe.