Molecular Biology Lab: Journal Article Presentation (20 points)
The reasoning behind this assignment is multi-fold.....
You are all likely entering into careers that will be filled with committee and collaborative work. Rarely, if ever
will you be taking tests and memorizing material! For most of us, our jobs will entail learning to work in groups
in one capacity or another.
In this assignment we will utilize communication, cooperation, and collaboration skills. Science is rarely an
independent endeavor. For example, most scientific articles typically have numerous authors who contributed to
the project in one way or another*.
*The first author is generally the contributor who did most of the work, the last or senior author is typically the
person from whose lab from which the work was done and the authors listed between the main and senior
authors are listed according to their relative contributions to the project. Author rank is very important.
Being able to identify, interpret, and explain scientific data from the primary literature is also good practice for
graduate school, medicine, journalism, teaching, or any other scientific endeavor, so think of this as a learning
experience.
Public speaking is also an important skill for doctors, nurses and scientists to develop, but it makes many people
nervous. Practice is the best remedy. The lab is a friendly and understanding audience. Hopefully you will find
that working in groups can also alleviate much of the pressure associated of public speaking.
In groups of 3-4, you will lead a short discussion on a journal article that is related to the use of 16S rRNA
sequencing. It should be a “primary” science article published in the last 5 years and not a “review article”.
The use of 16S rRNA sequencing is done extensively with many diverse applications. For example: to identify
clinical pathogens; to assess bacteria present in the environment; to establish evolutionary relationships (the 3rd
domain of life: Archaea was suggested based entirely on 16S rRNA sequencing results!); the list goes on and
on. You will have no problem finding articles utilizing 16S rRNA, however, you will want to read through a
few abstracts in order find an article that looks interesting enough to warrant your time for reading it and that
might make a good piece to present. The easiest way to access an article is to do a search at PubMed at NCBI
using keywords such as 16S rRNA etc. If as a group you are having trouble finding an article, please set up a
time and I will show you how and where to search for an article.
Each group will prepare a PowerPoint presentation based on one recent article chosen from a primary journal
and present it to the class with 15 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for questions. This 15-5 ratio is
often the time allotted to scientists to present their data at a conference (as you will see this is SHORT!)
Step 1: Find two articles that as a group you agree upon presenting. Use articles from "primary" journals such
as those indexed and searchable in NCBI. Bring these to lab next week. I have you selecting two articles in case
we find that more than one group has picked the same article.
Step 2: Prepare a PowerPoint presentation with between ~15-20 slides. Make images and type as large as
possible to fill the screen. The presentation should at minimum contain:
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"TITLE" which should include the following- title of paper; journal, volume, page numbers, year;
authors and institution. (Also a slide with everyone in the groups names would be helpful)
General background- why the topic is of interest and other information to understand the research.
Introduction of the research (Specific Aims)
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Data for their key experiments. The experiments you will describe should be chosen with care. Make
sure that they are the key experiments in the paper.
Summary of results of any of their other experiments
Conclusions
Your critique of the article
Step 3: Decide as a group who will present which slides, it may flow the smoothest if perhaps one person does
introduction, another student discusses the results, and a third student discusses the conclusions the authors
make and/or the critique (what as a group you liked about the paper, disliked about the paper, potential
suggestions as to what might have improved the article).
Step 4: Presentation: we are shooting for SHORT presentations (15 minutes) a group.
Presentations will be done in lab April 3, 4 or 5th.