BE.109

Spring 2006

Instructors: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Bevin Engelward and Natalie Kuldell

Writing Instructor: Neal Lerner
Oral Presentation Instructor: Atissa Banuazizi

TAs: Maria Foley, Eileen Higham, Yoon Sung Nam and Reshma Shetty

Lecture: T/R 11-12 (13-3101) Lab: T/R 1-5 or W/F 1-5 (13-3095)

Welcome to BE109! For many of you this will be the first time in a research lab and for others it will not, but it is our goal to make this class a useful and fun introduction to experiments and techniques in biological engineering. There is not time enough to show you everything you’ll need to know if you go on to do research, but after taking this class you should feel confident and familiar with some fundamental experimental approaches and lab protocols. You will develop good habits at the bench, ones that will increase the likelihood of success in your work and insure the health and safety of you and those around you. By the end of the semester, you should also be aware of good scientific practice, having had some experience with report writing, notebook keeping and publicly presenting your data. All of us involved in teaching BE.109 hope you will find it a satisfying challenge and an exciting experience that has lasting value.

Announcements

• 03/09/2006: You can now download Neal's PPT slides as PDF files from Neal's page.
• 03/08/2006: A map for finding building E17 (or E18) where we will perform a flow cytometry analysis is available at the discussion page for Module 1 Day 8: FACS analysis experiment.
• 03/04/2006: Congratulations on getting the delta5 clones! Gel images are now posted on the discussion page for the Module 1 Day 6: Restriction map and tissue culture experiment.
• 03/01/2006: Class data from ligations/transformations is posted on the discussion page for Module 1 Day 5: examining candidate clones. Some discussion about the efficiency calculation is there as well.
• 02/27/2006: You can download the introduction slides for manuscript discussion from discussion page for Module 1 Day 6: Restriction map and tissue culture experiment. If you have any trouble, please email to Yoon Sung (yoonsung@mit.edu) ahead of time.
• 02/27/2006: Check out the discussion page at Module 1 Day 4: DNA ligation and bacterial transformation if you are having trouble deciding on enzymes to use for your diagnostic digests.
• 02/27/2006: You can now easily check the BE.109 site to see what new stuff has been added. Look at Recent changes for BE.109.
• 02/24/2006: nice results from yesterday's ligation and transformation experiment! Everyone has some candidates to screen next time....
• 02/23/2006: a few hints to help you plan your ligations have now been posted at discussion page at Module 1 Day 4: DNA ligation and bacterial transformation.
• 02/22/2006: If you're not sure how to take the log10 of the length of the DNA ladder, clarification is posted at discussion page at Module 1 Day 3: Agarose gel electrophoresis.
• 02/19/2006: Images of your gels with recovery results have been uploaded to the discussion page at Module 1 Day 3: Agarose gel electrophoresis.
• 02/16/2006:The images of your gels from lab have been uploaded to the discussion page at Module 1 Day 3: Agarose gel electrophoresis. More gel images to assess the recovery of your fragments will follow. Congratulations on such nice work! -- Natalie