Genomics and Undergraduate Research
A. Malcolm Campbell, Department of Biology, Davidson College
3 Mar 2006
The National Research Council report Bio2010 called for a change in the way undergraduates are taught. To prepare students for careers in research, we need to increase the amount of interdisciplinary curriculum, improve quantitative skills in the life sciences, and provide ready access to the most recent trends in research. Furthermore, the diversity of students pursuing careers in science needs to reflect the diversity of the nation at large if we are to fully utilize the talent present in underrepresented populations. My talk will present a series of initiatives developed at Davidson College that use genomic tools to improve undergraduate curricula and broaden the participation by minority students.
Davidson is the home campus of the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT; www.bio.davidson.edu/GCAT) which has helped over 120 schools bring DNA microarrays into the hands of over 5,000 undergraduates. My mathematics colleague Dr. Laurie Heyer and her students have written freeware for microarray data analysis that works on all computer platforms. My students conduct research using DNA microarrays to measure aneuploidy in yeast. Others devise and construct DNA circuits as part of a fledgling field called synthetic biology. We have developed a “teaching chip” for use in undergraduate labs where students can print and perform simplified DNA microarray experiments. To help prepare students for upper level courses, we continue to develop a DNA microarray simulation that is ideal for first year college or high school students. All of these resources, as well as our course materials, are available online (www.bio.davidson.edu/campbell).