Using a hypothetical scenario of an infant diagnosed with sickle cell disease, students model transcription and translation In a series of investigations using unique magnetic nucleotide bases, develop their own protein translation model, and use clay to demonstrate the physiological effects of the sickle cell mutation.

Sturdy, colorful pieces and magnets make it easy for students to learn the structure and function of DNA by snapping, bending, twisting, and interacting with their own realistic model! Designed with versatility in mind, the Dynamic DNA Kit© can be used to teach not only DNA structure but also DNA replication and DNA transcription, making it an impactful go-to for genetics instruction.

The Disorder Detectives Classroom Kit offers a fresh and engaging approach to teaching karyotyping by challenging students to take on the role of cytogeneticists and diagnose the diseases of 15 unique patients. Using fully reusable materials, students work on case studies by completing patient karyotypes with chromosome decals— with a variety of chromosome abnormalities resulting from nondisjunction, deletion, inversion, and translocation.

Train your students to measure, dispense, and mix liquids accurately with perfection every time. No more waste due to errors and inexperience. Included in this kit are reusable practice gels that will last for years.

Students learn about the importance of clean water in human health, water treatment for microbial contamination, and one of the methods used to test the safety of water for human use.

Investigate infectious diseases safely with this laboratory case study kit. Students examine bacterial growth, applying hands-on skills to learn and practice safe microbiological techniques, including plate streaking, Gram staining, and basic bacterial culturing. Once they master those skills, they then examine antibiotic susceptibility, design an experiment to test for it, and learn to interpret their results.

This classic lab was developed in cooperation with the DNA Learning Center. Students perform restriction digests on bacteriophage lambda DNA, conduct electrophoretic analysis of the reactions, and stain the resulting gel. They then observe and analyze the stained patterns of fragments separated by size during gel electrophoresis.

Allow your students to practice important sterile lab skills for studying microorganisms. Students perform 2 sterile exercises: the transfer of sterile nutrient broth to a culture tube and the transfer of sterile nutrient broth from a culture tube onto a nutrient agar plate. Students must be able to perform both of these exercises without introducing unwanted microorganisms and understand the use of a positive control.

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.

Students evaluate a buffer solution’s buffering capacity and compare the titration curves of a buffer solution and a weak acid. This comparative laboratory exercise can be taught using either a guided or an inquiry activity. In the guided activity, students measure the pH of a citric acid solution titrated with a strong base and plot the titration curve. Students repeat the procedure with a solution prepared from a commercial lemonade mix, which behaves as a buffer and whose primary ingredient is citric acid. Students compare the 2 titration curves, make observations, and address the differences in the curves.

With this one-of-a-kind kit, students purify Taq polymerase, an enzyme used in polymerase chain reactions, from bacteria engineered to produce it, then test the enzyme’s activity by performing PCR with it. As students gain hands-on experience with PCR, they learn the same lab skills used in the biotechnology workplace. Each kit equips 24 students to produce and validate their own Taq polymerase.

In this lab, students perform “chunking,” a simple way to move worms from one plate to another. They then observe the morphology, life cycle, and behavior of both wild-type and mutant worms. The observation that different mutants have different phenotypes emphasizes the relationship of genotype to different phenotype.

This PTC Taster: Extraction, Amplification, and Electrophoresis Kit with CarolinaBLU® and 0.2-mL Tubes (with perishables) explores the molecular basis of the inherited ability to taste the bitter chemical phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). Students determine their ability to taste PTC using taste paper, use safe saline mouthwash and Chelex® extraction to obtain a sample of their own DNA, amplify a 221-nucleotide region of the PTC taste receptor gene, and

perform restriction digestion to differentiate the 2 alleles by gel electrophoresis to determine how well the SNP genotypes actually correlate to tasting.

Students observe a natural method of gene transfer. The harmless bacterial virus T4 transmits an ampicillin-resistance gene to E. coli. Students also observe the killing of E. coli by the bacteriophage. For more advanced students, a discussion of nonsense mutations and nonsense suppressing mutations is included with the teacher background information.

Electrophoresis of precut DNA with an analytical application. Students cast gels and perform electrophoresis of ready-to-load samples of predigested plasmid DNA. After staining with CarolinaBLU® stain, students determine the sizes of the plasmid DNA fragments in each sample and use the data to deduce a restriction map of the plasmid. Kit contains sufficient materials for 8 teams of students to perform the exercise.

Using β-thalassemia as a medical example, students explore the phenomenon of gene regulation in this hands-on kit. As students progress through the lab, they will answer why changes in the DNA sequence in front of a gene affect how much functional protein is produced by the gene. They will also use a new plasmid in a transformation experiment that includes a gene for kanamycin resistance. They learn to utilize IPTG as a compound to turn on gene expression for certain promoters. Finally, students will successfully transform plasmid to produce green fluorescent protein (GFP).

This biology lab explores the engineering of a yeast that’s genetically modified to produce ß-carotene. 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. Electrophoresis is performed to visualize results of transformation.

Explore a modern application of genetic engineering through this exciting laboratory activity. Many commercial crops are genetically modified (GM) to include a transferred gene (transgene) for herbicide resistance. This activity investigates whether the soy or corn ingredients in various processed foods contain a genetic modification.

This lab illustrates the use of DNA typing to identify individuals in court cases and disasters. It assays for variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphisms, which are caused by short, repeated copies of a 16-nucleotide sequence at the pMCT118 locus. Differences in the number of repeated units produce longer and shorter alleles, which can be resolved by gel electrophoresis. Because the VNTR locus has more than 29 different alleles, a panel of student types shows a variety of different genotypes.

Provide your students an authentic biomedical biotechnology experience with the HNPCC: Detecting Inherited Forms of Cancer Kit. Presented with a patient family case study pertaining to an inherited form of colon cancer, students first create a family pedigree. They then use gel electrophoresis to analyze a simulated DNA-based diagnostic test of samples from the fictitious family and identify which members have inherited the cancer-causing mutation. After deciphering their results, students take on the role of genetic counselor to discuss test results with one of the family members.

Introduce bio-engineering concepts and teach synthetic biology techniques by having students modify 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.

Students take a new approach to taxonomy using “DNA barcodes”—short, unique DNA sequences—to learn about the biodiversity of plants, mammals, fish, or insects. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on specific regions of the rbcL or COI gene, students amplify their extracted DNA to create unique barcodes. These amplified sequences (amplicons) are then submitted for sequencing and can be analyzed using our custom-designed online tool, DNA Subway.

Accessing the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, students use the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) to compare their sequences to gene segments published in the database. Using a case study approach, students continue to explore their sequences as they work to determine the location and role of their gene in a disease. Kit is designed to continually reinforce the central dogma of biology and give students basic knowledge of these database tools.

Utilize methylation-sensitive enzymes to explore epigenetics—heritable changes in gene expression—that affect flowering in Arabidopsis. By growing wild-type Ler and mutant fwa-1 plants, students are able to observe phenotypic differences in flowering and then investigate this difference using multiple molecular techniques. Students conduct DNA extraction, restriction enzyme digest, PCR, gel electrophoresis, and bioinformatics to investigate the pivotal role DNA methylation plays in gene regulation.

Explore infectious diseases using a hands-on simulated ELISA assay. ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) is a common laboratory technique used to test blood serum for antibodies against disease-causing agents. Using the ELISA Simulation Kit, students work in pairs to diagnose 6 fictitious patients for HIV, Lyme disease, avian influenza (bird flu), or West Nile virus with 1 simulated antigen. Hypothetical scenarios are provided for each patient being tested for each disease.

Students use a standard curve to analyze data in this experiment. They gather data by performing a BCA assay to determine the amount of protein in a standard versus 3 different food samples (included). Optionally, they can supply and test a fourth liquid food sample of their choosing. A spectrophotometer is used to obtain numerical values and absorbances of dilutions of the standard and the samples. Students graph absorbance versus protein concentration for the standard and use the resulting curve to interpolate the concentration of protein in the samples.

This microarray simulation provides an inexpensive, hands-on lab to introduce students to microarrays, the complexities of gene expression, and the role of gene expression in cancer. Using simulated microarray technology, students compare the relative expression levels of 6 different genes in healthy lung cells and lung cancer cells. Students then discuss the significance of the relative expression levels with respect to the genes’ roles in causing cancer.

Explore the evolution of fish species through protein analysis. Students perform polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis on extracted muscle protein mixtures from 7 different types of fish. Students compare the protein fingerprints from the 7 different types of fish, hypothesize on the degree of relatedness of the fish, and compare their ideas to a standard evolutionary tree of fish.

An AUTHENTIC Gene Editing Experience Available Only from Carolina

Discover CRISPR technology the way it was meant to be with this truly unique, hands-on CRISPR gene editing kit. Designed to be safe and approachable, the kit activities break down each portion of the gene editing reaction into fundamental steps, offering teachable moments along the way.