Premium
Promoting Interdisciplinary Connections in the Undergraduate Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Curriculum
Author(s) -
Taylor Donald B.
Publication year - 2007
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.21.5.a298-b
Subject(s) - curriculum , undergraduate research , variety (cybernetics) , computational biology , engineering ethics , chemistry , medical education , biology , computer science , engineering , psychology , medicine , artificial intelligence , pedagogy
Our science curriculum features a strong interdisciplinary student and faculty research program that enables students from a range of scientific disciplines to work with faculty on collaborative research problems. We have intentionally recruited and hired new faculty and developed programs to capitalize on providing faculty and student research opportunities at the interface of multiple scientific disciplines. Examples include an integrated Natural Science Laboratory sequence that provides the first year of research training for a select group of science students, a BioCalculus course, a program to support undergraduate research in quantitative biology, a Biological Physics concentration, and the establishment of a Center for Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology (CBBMB). The impetus to develop the CBBMB was sparked by curriculum revision of our existing biochemistry and molecular biology majors. The CBBMB includes a core facility used in a variety of laboratory experiences (Recombinant DNA Laboratory, Protein Biochemistry, Bioinformatics/Genomics, Computational Molecular Modeling Laboratory, and Experimental Biophysics Laboratory) to enable students to investigate the structural information encoded in the human genome and the advancements that are being made daily in applying that information toward solving biomedical problems.