Undergraduate research experience is critical to success in postgraduate research settings. The recent movement away from "cookbook" style laboratories to course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) in undergraduate laboratories has allowed universities to provide inclusive research experience while bypassing the limitations…

A Microsoft Excel workbook has been developed to simplify the quantitative analysis of experimentally measured titration curves for diprotic and triprotic amino acids such as glycine, arginine, histidine, and glutamate. Students perform the titration, enter the data into the worksheet, and manually adjust the resulting pK[subscript a] values to…

Circular dichroism (CD) has emerged as one of the standard biophysical techniques for the study of guaninequadruplex (G4) folding, cation effect, and ligand binding. The utility of this technique is based on its robustness, ease of use, and requirement of only small quantities of nucleic acid. This experiment is also extendable to the classroom…

Undergraduate and graduate engineering training differ significantly. The former looks to established protocols and formulas to design and control processes while the latter often involves questioning established protocols and formulas to better suit and describe phenomena. Although we do not dispute the benefits of practical hands-on approaches,…

New suitable approaches were investigated to visualize the photodynamic inactivation (PDI) of bacteria immobilized on agar surfaces. The PDI capacities of a cationic photosensitizer (5,10,15,20-tetra(4-N,N,N-trimethylammoniumphenyl)porphyrin) and an anionic photosensitizer (5,10,15,20-tetra(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin) were analyzed on a typical…

Presents an introduction to the Biochemical and Biomedical Engineering program at Rice University. Describes the development of the academic and enhancement programs, including organizational structure and research project titles. (YP)

Explains that triglycerides consist of a mixture of different compounds, depending on the total number of fatty acid constituents. Details the method and instrumentation necessary for students to analyze a vegetable oil for its triglyceride content. Describes sample results. (CW)

Classroom discussion of scientific articles can be an effective means of teaching scientific principles and methodology to both undergraduate and graduate science students. The availability of classic papers from the American Physiological Society Legacy Project has made it possible to access articles dating back to the early portions of the 20th…