Pre-COVID, the Multidisciplinary Lab team ran a finely tuned operation that allowed multiple undergraduate lab courses with vastly different needs to go off without a hitch each day. This year that same precision had to be just as flawless under new safety protocols and with some of the students watching from halfway around the world.
SAFER BY THE DOZEN: This section of Inquiry in Biochemistry: From Gene to Protein Function was reduced from 24 to 12 students, with three at each lab bench instead of six. They have assigned seats for the semester to keep their contacts consistent and limit interactions with multiple students.
GENETIC MODIFIERS: Lucy Tian ’22, left, and Thedoe Nyunt ’22 create a mutation in a DNA molecule using polymerase chain reaction. Students chose and designed the mutations, which are in the active site of the enzyme that the DNA is coding for. The students will ultimately express
and purify that protein in bacterial cells, and compare the activity of their mutated enzyme to the wild (natural) type.
GOING THE DISTANCE: Logan Chin ’23, left, and James Gallagher ’23 work on their experiment while lab partner Masha Glik ’22 participates from Moscow. Remote students helped design the mutations in the protein as well, and watch the experiments being performed in the lab.
COMMUNICATION HUB: At right, lab instructor Mukulika Ray, PhD, keeps in touch with remote students on the laptop in the center of the classroom.
