NEW Winter 2010 Course
EE 425, BIOE 425, CSE 488: Laboratory Methods in Synthetic Biology
This course in an introduction to the practice of synthetic biology: building artificial biochemical reaction networks and devices in bacteria. Synthetic biochemical devices and organisms have applications in cell and tissue engineering, gene therapy, biologically derived drugs and materials, alternative fuels, biosensors, and much more. In this course, you will learn how to program cells with DNA, learn to build genes, make your own transgenic bacteria, and characterize your constructions using PCR, flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy, plate reader assays, DNA sequencing, and more.
Prerequisites: Engineering/Natural Science background is helpful, but not required. The course does not assume a background in biology (although such background would be very helpful). We do assume a basic course in chemistry.