Henry V. Jakubowski

A project-based biochemistry laboratory promoting the understanding and uses of fluorescence spectroscopy in the study of biomolecular structures and interactions.

A laboratory project for a first semester biochemistry course is described, which integrates the traditional classroom study of the structure and function of biomolecules with the laboratory study of these molecules using fluorescence spectroscopy. Students are assigned a specific question addressing the stability/function of lipids, proteins, or nucleic acids, and asked to design an experiment to answer the question using fluorescence methodologies. Students study phase equilibria and determine the critical micelle concentration of single chain amphiphiles, the melting point of multilamellar vesicles, and the melting points and thermodynamic constants (Keq, ΔG0, ΔH0 and ΔS0) for denaturation of ds‐DNA and proteins. In addition, they examine binding properties of proteins. These laboratory experiments are designed to support student learning of the major themes of structure and function in the course.

The pre‐health collection within MedEdPORTAL's iCollaborative: Helping faculty prepare students for the competencies in the new MCAT2015 exam

To help faculty prepare and revise courses in all the disciplines represented in the MCAT2015, the American Association of Medical Colleges, through its MedEdPORTALs iCollaborative, has established the Pre‐health Collection, a repository of reviewed web resources that are openly and freely available to faculty, and indirectly through them to students. The Pre‐health Collection initiative makes use of the Internet to centralize teaching resources and to help faculty at institutions with fewer available resources to incorporate high quality teaching material specifically reviewed to assist students in obtaining the required pre‐health competencies. As biochemistry competencies are increasingly represented in the new exam, it is important to grow the number of quality teaching resources for biochemistry within the portal and to develop a community of users and contributors. A description of the Pre‐Health Collection and mechanisms for contributions are presented.

The Global Ethics Corner: foundations, beliefs, and the teaching of biomedical and scientific ethics around the world

The profound advances in the biomolecular sciences over the last decades have enabled similar advances in biomedicine. These advances have increasingly challenged our abilities to deploy them in an equitable and ethically acceptable manner. As such, it has become necessary and important to teach biomedical and scientific ethics to our students who will become the researchers, medical professionals, and global citizens of the future. As advances in the biosciences and medicine are made, developed, and used across the globe, our survival on an endangered planet requires global dialog and consensual action. To that end, a group of us from around the world have come together to describe the differing foundations of our ethical beliefs, and how ethical issues in biomedicine and in science are described and confronted in our countries. We hope to show the commonality in our beliefs and practices and to encourage readers from around the world to contribute to a continuing discussion through a new section of the journal, The Global Ethics Corner.

Differentiating biochemistry course laboratories based on student experience

Content and emphases in undergraduate biochemistry courses can be readily tailored to accommodate the standards of the department in which they are housed, as well as the backgrounds of the students in the courses. A more challenging issue is how to construct laboratory experiences for a class with both chemistry majors, who usually have little or no experience with biochemical techniques and biology and biochemistry majors who do. This manuscript describes a strategy for differentiating biochemistry labs to meet the needs of students with differing backgrounds. BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 216–218, 2011.