Enzymes are widely applied in different industries, like pharmaceutical, food, biofuel, and waste valorization. However, the enzyme operating conditions are very limited. So, in most industrial processes, enzymes are not efficient, due to the use of harsh conditions, like organic solvents, extreme pH, and temperature. Immobilization arises as a…

Protein engineering represents a modern approach to generate novel proteins for the different fields of biotechnology. Here, we report about an 8-day laboratory activity in which students generate enzyme variants to degrade the herbicide glyphosate. The students conduct a true research experiment in an important field (bioremediation by novel,…

Rhizobacteria that colonize plant roots and promote plant growth are referred to as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, and this can stimulate plant growth either indirectly or directly. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by rhizobacteria have the capacity to promote plant growth as well as perform biocontrol of fungal pathogens. The…

To inspire upper-division undergraduate students to gain a deeper understanding of biorefinery, an experiment related to biofuels and lignin-based sunscreen products from corncob was performed in multiple offerings of a summer-semester class. Specifically, corncobs were pretreated with 1% H[subscript 2]SO[subscript 4] to obtain hemicellulose…

With the advancement of ribonucleic acid (RNA) research in the field of biochemistry, ensuring that undergraduate students have both the theoretical and practical knowledge of current, cutting-edge experimental techniques is of marked importance. Many current biochemistry experiments demonstrate various basic molecular biological techniques…

As nonrenewable resources deplete and educators seek relevant interdisciplinary content for organic chemistry instruction, biobased laboratory experiments present themselves as potential alternatives to petroleum-based transformations, which offer themselves as sustainable variations on important themes. Following the principles of green chemistry…

Background: We present an analysis of students' responses to application-based questions on the topic of growth and control of microorganisms, from a questionnaire administered to 348 second and third year students of an Indian university who were enrolled in its undergraduate programs in Biotechnology or Microbiology. We examined aspects of the…

Homologous recombination, a central concept in biology, is defined as the exchange of DNA strands between two similar or identical nucleotide sequences. Unfortunately, undergraduate students majoring in biotechnology often experience difficulties in understanding the molecular basis of homologous recombination. In this study, we developed and…

Production of liquid fuels such as ethanol from fibrous plant biomass could potentially be a significant sustainable component of the U.S. energy portfolio. Engineers and scientists are actively researching this area, and high school students can engage in this contemporary inquiry process by experimenting with different types of biomass, varying…

An integrative laboratory study addressing fundamentals of enzyme catalysis and their application to reactors operation and modeling is presented. Invertase, a ß-fructofuranosidase that catalyses the hydrolysis of sucrose, is used as the model enzyme at optimal conditions (pH 4.5 and 45 °C). The experimental work involves 3 h of laboratory time…

This article describes the assembly of a simple, low-cost, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system and its use in the undergraduate chemical engineering laboratory course to perform simple experiments. By interpreting the results from these experiments students are able to gain significant experience in the general method of…

Advances in biology are prompting new discoveries in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical technology, and chemical industries. This paper presents a detailed description of an anion exchange chromatography experiment using a pair of colorful proteins and summarizes the effect of operating parameters on protein separation. This experiment…

The purpose of this article is to discuss "small-group apprenticeships (SGAs)" as a method to instruct cell culture techniques to high school participants. The study aimed to teach cell culture practices and to introduce advanced imaging techniques to solve various biomedical engineering problems. Participants designed and completed experiments…