In 1990, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse microbiologists Mike Winfrey and Al Wortman
received three years of funding from the NSF Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement Program to
offer an intensive 2-week laboratory workshop in molecular biology for College and
University faculty. The genes for bacterial bioluminescence had recently been cloned and
we had for several years been developing an integrated molecular biology laboratory
curriculum based on the cloning and analysis of genes encoding this fascinating biological
phenomenon. In the first year of the NSF-funded course, we compiled a series of exercises
involving the cloning, mapping, subcloning and sequencing the bioluminescence (lux) genes
from the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri into a laboratory manual. Following the first
year of the course, Al Wortman resigned his position at the University to work in the
biotechnology industry, and was replaced by Marc Rott, a Bacterial Geneticist from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rott had extensive experience in bacterial molecular
biology and took over for Wortman as the co-instructor in the 1992 and 1993 courses.
During the NSF summer courses and in our undergraduate microbiology courses, the exercises
were thoroughly tested and the manual was extensively revised based on the experiences and
comments of college faculty and our students.
In 1993 Winfrey and Rott wrote a renewal grant to NSF and received two additional
years of funding to offer an expanded 2 1/2 week course for college faculty in the summers
of 1994 and 1995. For these workshops, we developed several additional exercises and
significantly modified exercises in PCR and DNA sequencing. The summer courses were
extremely successful and although we could only accept 20 faculty each summer, we had
between 50 and 100 applicants for the workshop each year. 100 faculty have taken the
course with the final workshop offering in the summer of 1995. In conjunction with the
100's of undergraduates at UW-La Crosse and greater than 1000 students that have used
these exercises at campuses all across the country, the lab exercises have been
exhaustively tested. In addition, the manual has been completely revised by the authors
each year with significant input from the college faculty participants in our summer
courses.
In addition to the 28 exercises in the manual, there are 17 appendices with information
on basic procedures and precautions in molecular biology, recipes for media and reagents,
lists of suppliers of equipment and materials used in the course, and current references.
We have also developed complete prep sheets with detailed lists of all cultures, media,
reagents, and materials required for each exercises. All recipes and tips for running each
exercise are provided. Prep sheets are available on computer disk to enable instructors to
readily modify the preparations to accomodate the number of students in their classes.
Please direct any comments and suggestions to Mike
Winfrey or Marc Rott
Last Updated: March 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997, The University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Biology/Microbiology
Department