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Using CRISPR and Saccharomyces cerevisiae As a Tool To Inspire Interest In Biotechnology at Community College
Author(s) -
Furlong Robert James
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2020.34.s1.07395
Subject(s) - crispr , organism , saccharomyces cerevisiae , population , computational biology , microbiology and biotechnology , computer science , biology , genetics , gene , medicine , environmental health
Clustered Inter‐spaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is a technology used to make accurate edits to the genome of a particular organism, cheaply and quickly. Saccharomyces cerevisiae ( S. cerevisiae ) is a model Eukaryote organism used in both industry and research for a number of applications. 88% of publications referencing CRISPR in the PubMed data base, approximately 9000 in all, have been published since January 2015 (Wolyniak et al 2019) indicating that CRISPR has become a sensation in the media, as well as the biotechnology industry. It is more imperative than ever that undergraduate students are able to gain experience with this technology to not only better prepare them for use in industry and research, but to also generate interest in the population. This experiment will take community college students sorted into three groups; those with 9+ hours of biology course work, those with 8–4 hours of biology course work, and those with 3 or less hours of biology course work, and have them complete an experiment derived from the protocol devised by Mans et al 2018, with supplemental information from the outline developed by Wolybiak et al 2019, to perform a CRISPR knock in experiment using the Beta‐galactosidase, an enzyme conserved in many organisms that ferments lactose (Jeurs, D. et al), DNA sequences from different organisms. The student’s comfort level with the subject material, as well as technique handling the varying technologies, learned through out the experiment will be assessed at the beginning, through out, and at the end of the experiment. Their perceived interest in CRISPR as a technology will also be tracked through out the study.