Senior undergraduates in the honors or graduation year with an intention to further their career in science would soon face the real world of scientific research as a junior scientist. It is important to acquaint these students with and adequately prepare them for the key aspects of a scientist's professional life. These include technical…

We have developed an introductory bioinformatics exercise for sophomore biology and biochemistry students that reinforces the understanding of the structure of a gene and the principles and events involved in its expression. In addition, the activity illustrates the severe effect mutations in a gene sequence can have on the protein product.…

Courses in introductory biochemistry invariably encompass basic principles of enzymology, with reinforcement of lecture-based material in appropriate laboratory practicals. Students undertaking practical classes are more enthusiastic, and generally display improved performance, when the specific experiments undertaken show direct relevance to…

There is increasing pressure, both from institutions central to the national scientific mission and from regional and national accrediting agencies, on natural sciences faculty to move beyond course examinations as measures of student performance and to instead develop and use reliable and valid authentic assessment measures for both individual…

eThese experiments examined the effects of posttrial peripheral and intra-amygdala injections of the cholinergic muscarinic receptor agonist oxotremorine on memory consolidation underlying extinction of amphetamine conditioned place preference (CPP) behavior. Male Long-Evans rats were initially trained and tested for an amphetamine (2 mg/kg) CPP.…

Cocaine produces multiple neuroadaptations with chronic repeated use. Many of these neuroadaptations can be reversed or normalized by extinction training during withdrawal from chronic cocaine self-administration in rats. This article reviews our past and present studies on extinction-induced modulation of the neuroadaptive response to chronic…

Deletions, translocations, or point mutations in the CREB-binding protein (CBP) gene have been associated with Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome; a human developmental disorder characterized by retarded growth and reduced mental function. To examine the role of CBP in memory, transgenic mice were generated in which the CaMKII[alpha] promoter drives…

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are known to play a role in synaptic plasticity and learning. We have previously shown that mGluR7 deletion in mice produces a selective working memory (WM) impairment, while other types of memory such as reference memory remain unaffected. Since WM has been associated with Theta activity (6-12 Hz) in…

Improving the effectiveness of written information to promote compliance with therapeutic regimens is essential, particularly among older adults. Guiding their development and evaluating their effectiveness with an accepted communication theory or model may help. A preliminary test of written materials developed within the context of the Extended…

This article describes how the use of interactive molecular graphics makes a unique and important contribution to student learning of biochemistry and molecular biology at any level. These authors developed the concept of the kinemage (from "kinetic image"), a different way of organizing computer graphics that is aimed explicitly at the…

The topics and concepts in this biochemical engineering course are presented in the context of the path from drug discovery to manufacturing. The basics for working in the area of cell culture process development are covered in an interesting, relevant, and connected way. This paper presents activities for engaging students in learning the…

In foundation biochemistry and biological chemistry courses, a major problem area that has been identified is students' lack of understanding of pH, acids, bases, and buffers and their inability to apply their knowledge in solving acid/base problems. The aim of this study was to explore students' conceptions of pH and their ability to solve…

Visualization is an essential skill for all students and biochemists studying and researching the molecular and cellular biosciences. In this study, we discuss the nature and importance of visualization in biochemistry education and argue that students should be explicitly taught visual literacy and the skills for using visualization tools as…

A protein lacking one of the 20 common amino acids is a protein lipogram. This open-ended problem-based learning assignment deals with the evolution of proteins with biased amino acid composition. It has students query protein and metabolic databases to test the hypothesis that natural selection has reduced the frequency of each amino acid…

Several hands-on and wet laboratory activities have been proposed to model the genetic concepts of genotypes and phenotypes and their relationship. The exercise presented in this article is a novel, time effective, student-centered, role-playing activity in which students learn about the intricate connection between genotype and phenotype by…