As a rule, an experiment carried out at school or in undergraduate study courses is rather simple and not very informative. However, when the experiments are to be performed using modern methods, they are often abstract and difficult to understand. Here, we describe a quick and simple experiment, namely the enzymatic characterization of ptyalin…

The threat of climate change makes it increasingly important for biologists and the public to understand how organisms respond to temperature. The Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) predicts that temperature should affect organism performance, with implications for species interactions and ecosystems that span disciplines including mathematics,…

Purpose: Hands-on training in tissue engineering is often associated with specialized labs and expensive equipment, such as CO[subscript 2] incubators. To minimize the use of costly commercial incubators and provide a more vivid engineering experience in a biology lab, we present a hands-on project that introduces medium to large groups of…

Metabolic Control Analysis (MCA) is a systems biology approach that measures the control of a metabolic step on the overall flux of a metabolic pathway. In undergraduate courses in biochemistry, learning of MCA can be encouraged by experimental activities demonstrating practical applications of the MCA theory. In this work, we present a laboratory…

Chemists have always designed and deployed cross-disciplinary approaches that interface chemistry with other disciplines to proffer solutions to many human problems. We designed a laboratory experiment that implements chemistry concepts in a biological model to prime undergraduate students to appreciate interdisciplinarity as an approach to…

Here we describe an approach and overall concept of how to train undergraduate university students to understand basic regulation and integration of glucose and fatty acid metabolism in response to fasting, intake of carbohydrates, and aerobic exercise. During lectures and both theoretical and practical sessions, the students read, analyze, and…

While metabolism is a fundamental process in physiology, the measurement of metabolism by living animals often requires specialized and expensive equipment. In 2016, I developed a novel laboratory exercise for animal physiology students where students were able to observe the effects of temperature and long-term temperature acclimation on the…

Students encounter antioxidants in many areas of their daily life. Antioxidants play a crucial role in cosmetics, in nutritional or dietary supplements, as additives for the preservation of food, and as a natural component in fruit and vegetables. Accordingly, antioxidants are believed to promote health through the prevention of oxidative stress…

This laboratory experiment introduces upper-division undergraduate analytical chemistry students to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in a forensic application: the analysis of cocaine and metabolites of cocaine in simulated serum ostensibly from drug overdose victims. For this investigation, students developed the…

A simple bioassay was designed for the detection of adenosine, a human metabolite involved in several physiological processes, on the basis of the functionalization of gold nanoparticles with DNA oligonucleotides selectively binding adenosine. The test was possible thanks to the selective and sensitive binding of adenosine by two DNA…

An experiment for the upper-division undergraduate biochemistry laboratory is described in which students investigate the influence of genetic variations of cytochrome P450 1A2 on drug metabolism, using caffeine as a model compound. Saliva samples from human subjects are characterized for a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the CYP1A2 gene…

This investigative laboratory activity engages students in observing, recording, graphing and analyzing pulsation rates in a commonly used laboratory organism, blackworms. This activity stresses how various drugs can impact the pulsation rate in blackworms at varying concentrations. In addition, we have incorporated two new ways to view the…

Lactase is the enzyme responsible for the digestion of the disaccharide lactose, and deficiency in this enzyme causes the prevalent medical condition lactose intolerance. Management of lactose intolerance can be achieved through the administration of lactase supplements. Lactase is an appropriate platform for advanced enzymatic study because its…

After seeing several reports in newspapers making claims about the cause of death after children had swallowed button batteries, a team of students decided to try to establish which (if any) claims were true. The findings were reported in the Schools Exhibition at the ASE Annual Conference 2018 in Liverpool and are shared in detail here. (A…

Transition metals play an important role in many biological processes, however, they are also toxic at high concentrations. Therefore, the uptake and efflux of these metals must be tightly regulated by the cell. Bacteria have evolved a variety of pathways and regulatory systems to monitor the presence and concentration of metals in the cellular…