BioBuilder Carolina Staff April 19, 2023

Carolina Biological Supply Company is proud to partner with BioBuilder, an award-winning team at MIT creating innovative STEM education focused on synthetic biology. BioBuilder approaches this exciting field with unique labs, connecting real-world questions in agriculture, medicine, biofuels, and environmental remediation with classroom content.

BioBuilder believes that authenticity generates engagement in STEM, and BioBuilder labs enhance existing science curricula. Spark critical thinking in your classroom by carrying out authentic investigations using the natural world to engineer and learn science.

BioBuilder kits feature full color and graphically rich instructional guides that make it easy for students to follow lab procedures and learn engineering concepts.

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BioBuilder® Eau That Smell

Advanced—For experienced high school and college classes; requires some technical skill.

Students learn microbiology techniques while modifying stinky bacteria into bacteria that smell like bananas. Use this lab to investigate the design and placement of promoters to determine gene expression. Collect class data to compare quantitative and qualitative results of microbial population growth dynamics.

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BioBuilder® What a Colorful World

Advanced—For experienced high school and college classes; requires some technical skill.

The molecular biology kit uses 2 bacterial cell types and 2 color-generating plasmids to teach DNA expression, inheritance, and sterile technique. The lab extends beyond classic transformation technique because it is put in context with the engineering concept of "chassis selection" when choosing the best host cell.

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BioBuilder® Golden Bread Transformation

Advanced - For experienced high school and college classes; requires some technical skill.

This biology lab focuses on a strain of baker's yeast, modified to produce ß-carotene (VitaYeast), a nutrient we naturally obtain from eating specific vegetables. In the body, ß-carotene is converted to vitamin A, which is crucial for vision, the immune system, and other biological functions. Investigate how one can possibly substitute standard baker's yeast, making it possible for users to bake vitamin A-enriched loaves of bread (Golden Bread).

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BioBuilder® Golden Bread PCR

Advanced—For experienced high school and college classes; requires some technical skill.

This biology lab explores the engineering of a yeast that's genetically modified to produce ß-carotene. In the body, ß-carotene is converted to vitamin A, which is crucial for vision, the immune system, and other biological functions. Use PCR to test the metabolic pathway of modified Saccharomyces cerevisiae as part of the engineering design-build-test pathway and investigate how to make it possible for users to bake vitamin A-enriched loaves of bread. 

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BioBuilder® iTune Device

Advanced—For experienced high school and college classes; requires some technical skill.

In this lab, students test different combinations of promoters and ribosome binding sites by looking at the beta-galactosidase enzyme output. Students learn about the lac operon, transcription, and translation while testing their genetic constructs. The simple lab procedure with spectrophotometry makes it possible for students to understand these challenging topics.

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BioBuilder® Guiding Light: Measuring and Analyzing Fluorescence Kit

Fluorescence has incredibly powerful applications in the world of science. In this simple yet impactful activity, students examine the relationship between fluorescence intensity and concentration of fluorescent molecules. They use a typical highlighting marker to create a standard curve, giving them the ability to determine the concentration of fluorescent molecules in other samples.

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More from BioBuilder

BioBuilder kits introduce bio-engineering concepts to allow students to experience real-world connections. These advanced kits teach synthetic biology and microbiology techniques perfect for highschool and college classes.