ABI Curriculum Overview Page

Advanced Biotechnology Institute

Curriculum Components	Learning Objectives
Bacterial Genetic Transformation	Apply the scientific method to conduct an experiment in genetic engineering. Understand the operon mechanism of gene regulation in bacteria.
Protein Purification: Column Chromatography	Purify a recombinant bacterial protein by hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC). Separate proteins by size exclusion chromatography (SEC).
DNA Restriction Analysis (DNA Fingerprinting)	Apply restriction endonucleases and electrophoresis to solve a problem in forensic biotechnology. Use standards to estimate RFLP sizes on agarose gels. Use Gel-Doc 2000 to analyze gels.
Amplification and Analysis of Human DNA by PCR	Understand and use Polymerase Chain Reaction to amplify a section of a human chromosome. Study human allelic variation by analyzing short tandem repeats (STRs) as the basis of DNA profiling.
Protein Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)	Isolate protein samples from related species by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Use standards to estimate protein molecular weights.
Bioinformatics	Learn to perform NCBI sequence searches (BLAST) to compare evolutionary relationships based on human mitochondrial DNA. Visit the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the National Library of Medicine on the NIH Campus, Bethesda, MD. Learn powerful analytical tools such as BLAST searching and resources such as PubMed.
Immunology	Perform an ELISA assay to test for exposure to an unknown virus.
Genetically Modified Foods	Detect nucleotide sequences by PCR to test food for genetic modification.
DNA Microarrays and Gene Expression	Learn how "Gene Chips" can be used to study expression of cancer-related genes in humans.
RNAi and Gene Silencing	Explore how long double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) can be used to silence genes in many organisms by RNA interference.