What follows is a brief description of the modules in the CRCD program.

Bioinformatics

The bioinformatics module is composed of four sub-modules, each of equal length: 1) An experimental investigation of the properties (optimal temperature and pH, effect of substrate concentration on activity) of a hydrolytic enzyme; 2) computation-based multi-sequence alignment of the amino acid sequences of the different forms of the enzyme produced by different organisms; 3) construction of a phylogenetic tree of the different enzyme forms by computation; and 4) computational automated docking of different substrates in the enzyme active site. The student teams in the course studied either b-glucosidase or glucoamylase.

Professor in charge: Peter Reilly

Metabolic Engineering

The metabolic engineering module combined experimentation with mathematical analysis of the metabolism of the ethanol fermentation. Extracellular measurements of product and substrate levels of the fermentation broth are the inputs to a metabolic model that consisted of stoichiometric equations. The outputs of the analysis are the calculated metabolic fluxes. Students in this course will be able to perform a yeast fermentation, model the network for ethanol formation, determine and carry out the measurements needed, analyze the flux distribution, assess areas of reaction network for genetic modification, and determine whether more tools are needed for future characterization.

An example report

Professor in charge: Jackie Shanks

Materials Processing

The plant protein recovery module allowed for exploration of alternative separation sequences for recovery of a recombinant protein from transgenic corn. The research aspect was enlivened by the result being sent to a company planning to commercialize the process. The resulting student-selected experimental effort included selective extraction, precipitation, ultrafiltration, ion exchange and hydrophobic interaction chromatography for purification of the protein product from the corn extract. The project provides opportunities to consider both process (column operation) and product development (resin selection) questions. Students in this course will be able to collect and store samples, prepare and standardize solutions, be able to perform the procedures listed above, interpret and report results, and draw appropriate conclusions regarding procedures and results.

An Example Report in Powerpoint.

Professor in charge: Chuck Glatz

Tissue Engineering

The tissue engineering module exposed students to biotechnology-related product development through an experiment involving skin tissue culture on porous biodegradable polymer scaffolds. The students explored the use of various polymer substrates for skin culture in bioreactors. This enabled them to use chemical engineering principles to determine the appropriate media flowrates and control the heat and mass transfer rates to provide the right environment for the cells. The extended application was to design an appropriate bioreactor to sustain the growth of the cells on the polymer substrates for a period of two to three weeks to form artificial skin with good transport of nutrients and wastes to and from the cells. Students in this course will obtain an overview of polymer science and engineering, be able to identify the criteria to be satisfied before choosing a polymeric biomaterial, know necessary tests to assess biocompatibility, be able to recognize important properties of polymers with respect to biocompatibility, and understand bioethical issues associated with the use of biomaterials.

An example report in Microsoft Word

Professors in charge: Surya Mallapragada and Balaji Narasimhan