Dear Students,
Dr. Aybike Birerdinc at Inova Hospital, previous graduate of Mason's PhD Biosciences program, is offering the following 1-credit directed studies course (BIOL 693) along with Dr. Ancha Baranova this spring term.  It will meet several times for lecture and also during the week of spring break for lab.  If you would like to register for it, please send me an email.  You can add to your spring schedule until February 2.

Diane St. Germain
Coordinator, Biology and Biosciences
Graduate Academic Programs
Molecular and Microbiology Dept.
George Mason University
Phone(703) 993-4263, Fax (703) 993-8976

Spring 2010 BIOL 693 Directed Studies:  “Chemiluminescent assay techniques”

Instructors: Aybike Birerdinc, Ancha Baranova

 
This 2-week course will focus on various cell based assay techniques using chemiluminescent detection systems to determine cellular functions. It will include some theoretical part (lecture) and cell assay (practical) part. Students will meet in Dr. Baranova’s Discovery Hall laboratory.  One week will be during Spring Break, March 8-12.  This course would be an excellent addition to your molecular laboratory techniques.

The primary goal will be to educate students on the properties of chemiluminescent assays as they differ from fluorometric assays. BrdU will be used for the measurement of the proliferation, caspase detection for the apoptosis. Students will be responsible for performing all chemiluminescent assays and will need to maintain their cells for the duration of these experiments. All subsequent data analysis will be performed by the students.

Each student will be responsible for submitting a written report summarizing their experiments to include: Introduction, methods, results, and a special troubleshooting section. Students are expected to learn the properties and limitations of each cell based assay and should be able to explain their results regardless of the outcome.

The final grade is based on mastery of the technique and the written report.