Laboratory in
biochemical
techniques

Fall 2007
course
navigation

Course Description

This laboratory will be an introduction to techniques commonly used by biochemists, and must be taken in conjunction with Biochemistry of the Cell. Your work in the laboratory will focus on a semester-long investigation of a protein extracted from papaya fruit. This project will allow you to perform your own biochemistry research project in which you will employ the principles of chemistry and biochemistry that we study in the classroom.
The protein you will investigate, papain, is a protease – it degrades proteins. This particular protein is purportedly used in products such as meat tenderizer and laundry detergents. Your goal is to determine if the papain you isolate from fresh (or dried) papaya is the same as that contained in commercial products such a meat tenderizer. To answer this question we will begin with basic laboratory procedures such as preparing reagents, chromatography, and performing a protein assay. We will then explore techniques for studying the activity of enzymes, and methods for separating proteins, such as one and two-dimensional electrophoresis. Finally we will employ methods for the identification of specific proteins using immuno-staining, and a phenomenally sensitive technique for quantifying a specific protein in solution, the enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA). Throughout this semester-long project you will also learn about the procedures for data acquisition and analysis that will allow you to draw meaningful conclusions from your results.
You can download a pdf of the full syllabus below, under "attachments".
http://cs.marlboro.edu/ courses/ fall2007/biochem_lab/ syllabus
last modified Wednesday September 5 2007 3:42 pm EDT

attachments [paper clip]

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[DOC]Biochm_lab_syll_07.pdf Sep 5 2007 3:41 pm 62.0kB