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BASIC LABORATORY SKILLS: WHAT OUR STUDENTS NEED TO SUCCEED

This article explores the importance of teaching students basic laboratory skills in biotechnology and how it can impact their research. It discusses the lack of emphasis on teaching these skills in academia and the need to change this approach. The article also highlights the fundamental principles that need to be taught, such as accuracy and precision, and suggests ways to incorporate these lessons into the Vision and Change framework.

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BASIC LABORATORY SKILLS: WHAT OUR STUDENTS NEED TO SUCCEED

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  1. BASIC LABORATORY SKILLS:WHAT OUR STUDENTS NEED TO SUCCEED Bio-Link Summer Fellows, 2010 Jeanette Mowery and Lisa Seidman Madison Area Technical College and Bio-Link

  2. IN THE BEGINNING…

  3. BIOTECHNOLOGY CREATION MYTH Herb Boyer Robert Swanson

  4. 1976 • Venture capitalist Robert Swanson met with biochemist Herbert Boyer. • Genentech was born out of that union.

  5. VISION • Use methods developed by molecular biologists Boyer, Cohen, Chang and others to take a gene from one organism and put into a cell (e.g. bacterial cell) • Transformed cells would then manufacture a protein product • That product would be of commercial value… • BIOMANUFACTURING

  6. AND SO IT CAME TO PASS • Worked • Genentech’s insulin made by transformed bacteria was approved in 1982

  7. Be fruitful and multiply…

  8. bioinformatics DNA Fingerprinting RNAi RNAi Stem cells RNAi Stem cells DNA Fingerprinting DNA Fingerprinting bioinformatics DNA Fingerprinting Stem cells bioinformatics bioinformatics RNAi RNAi DNA Fingerprinting DNA Fingerprinting Stem cells

  9. CREATION MYTH • Not entirely true • But there is a deeper truth to it • Biotechnology is union of biology and technology, must have both together

  10. Molecular BIOLOG… FDA Qpcr Venture capital Blast searCH Market..n ANGIOGENESIS cGMP MICROSOMAL RNa NDA IND Bottom LINE DIFFERENTIATION CDER TWO CULTURES

  11. Biotechnology is rooted in academia • The academic culture does not value teaching students basic lab skills • How do we know? • Why is this?

  12. SOME REASONS • Basics are boring • Students learn basics somewhere else • Students learn basics by osmosis • Students will be bored and leave our courses if we make them do this • We don’t have time • We can teach basics while the students do qPCR

  13. When you are balanced on the cutting edge, pushing the frontiers of science, you need a firm foundation.

  14. This was where we were yesterday morning in our plans for workshop • But then we listened to Vision and Change workshop • If students don’t know the fundamentals of lab work, they just produce bad research

  15. More to it • Pondered the nature of scientific process • In the monastery retreat

  16. WHAT IS THE HEART OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS? ?

  17. CONTROL

  18. Molecular BIOLOG… FDA Qpcr Venture capital Blast searCH Market..n ANGIOGENESIS cGMP MICROSOMAL RNa NDA IND Bottom LINE DIFFERENTIATION CDER TWO CULTURES

  19. If we could only teach our students one thing, what would it be? • Control • Identify what are the first things, the most basic things that must be controlled for a biologist?

  20. One Key Thing • Liquid environments for our systems (solutions, media, buffers) • Weighing • Volume • pH • Aseptic technique

  21. TEACHING • Underneath these techniques there are fundamental principles, like accuracy and precision • So, using a micropipette correctly is only the simplest and most superficial part of the lesson • Accuracy and precision are about control

  22. Fundamentals • Must be taught explicitly • Consciously • Systematic • Show students their value • How?

  23. TIME

  24. Now, let’s discuss our blocks recognizing that it is the deeper lessons we are interested in

  25. Questions • How much does a quarter weigh in M&M units? • How certain are you of your answer? • What does it mean to weigh something? • How much agreement is there in class results? • How can we maximize the accuracy of our balances? • How can we maximize the precision of our balances?

  26. Final Question • If you agree that the fundamentals must be taught systematically and explicitly • How do we make this a part of Vision and Change?

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