BASIC LABORATORY SKILLS:
WHAT OUR STUDENTS NEED TO
SUCCEED
Bio-Link Summer Fellows, 2010
Jeanette Mowery and Lisa Seidman
Madison Area Technical College
and Bio-Link
IN THE BEGINNING…
BIOTECHNOLOGY CREATION MYTH
Herb Boyer
Robert
Swanson
1976
• Venture capitalist Robert Swanson
met with biochemist Herbert Boyer.
• Genentech was born out of that
union.
VISION
• Use methods developed by molecular
biologists Boyer, Cohen, Chang and
others to take a gene from one organism
and put into a cell (e.g. bacterial cell)
• Transformed cells would then manufacture
a protein product
• That product would be of commercial
value…
– BIOMANUFACTURING
AND SO IT CAME TO PASS
• Worked
• Genentech’s insulin made by transformed
bacteria was approved in 1982
BE fruITful aNd mulTIply…
bioinformatics
CREATION MYTH
• Not entirely true
• But there is a deeper truth to it
• Biotechnology is union of biology and technology, must
have both together
FDA
Qpcr
ANGIOGENESIS
MICROSOMAL
RNa
DIFFERENTIATION
Market..n
cGMP
TWO CULTURES
IND
Bottom LINE
CDER
• Biotechnology is rooted in academia
• The academic culture does not value
teaching students basic lab skills
• How do we know?
• Why is this?
SOME REASONS
•
•
•
•
Basics are boring
Students learn basics somewhere else
Students learn basics by osmosis
Students will be bored and leave our
courses if we make them do this
• We don’t have time
• We can teach basics while the students do
qPCR
When you are balanced on the cutting edge,
pushing the frontiers of science,
you need a firm foundation.
• This was where we were yesterday
morning in our plans for workshop
• But then we listened to Vision and Change
workshop
• If students don’t know the fundamentals of
lab work, they just produce bad research
More to it
• Pondered the nature of scientific process
• In the monastery retreat
WHAT IS THE HEART OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS?
?
CONTROL
FDA
Qpcr
ANGIOGENESIS
MICROSOMAL
RNa
DIFFERENTIATION
Market..n
cGMP
TWO CULTURES
IND
Bottom LINE
CDER
• If we could only teach our students one
thing, what would it be?
• Control
• Identify what are the first things, the most
basic things that must be controlled for a
biologist?
One Key Thing
• Liquid environments for our systems
(solutions, media, buffers)
– Weighing
– Volume
– pH
– Aseptic technique
TEACHING
• Underneath these techniques there are
fundamental principles, like accuracy and
precision
• So, using a micropipette correctly is only
the simplest and most superficial part of
the lesson
• Accuracy and precision are about control
Fundamentals
•
•
•
•
•
Must be taught explicitly
Consciously
Systematic
Show students their value
How?
TIME
• Now, let’s discuss our blocks recognizing
that it is the deeper lessons we are
interested in
Questions
•
•
•
•
•
How much does a quarter weigh in M&M units?
How certain are you of your answer?
What does it mean to weigh something?
How much agreement is there in class results?
How can we maximize the accuracy of our
balances?
• How can we maximize the precision of our
balances?
Final Question
• If you agree that the fundamentals must
be taught systematically and explicitly
• How do we make this a part of Vision and
Change?