Resumen de Huntingtin Protein Purification and Experimentation: An Innovative Undergraduate Research-Based Biochemistry Experiment
Sharon Groover, Justin Legleiter, Erin E. Battin
Traditional undergraduate biochemical laboratory curricula are confronted with challenges in improving student-learning outcomes while incorporating exciting and thought-provoking research-based laboratories due to limitations with time, increased student enrollment, and high-cost laboratory resources. However, with specialized biochemical instrumentation being more economically accessible and incorporation of creative approaches to circumvent inflexible undergraduate schedules, it is now possible to overcome some of these challenges. We have designed a unique laboratory experiment intended to mediate some of the limitations common to traditional biochemical experimentation using components of a research-based experience within the confines of a scheduled undergraduate laboratory session. In this experiment, undergraduate biochemistry students investigate the Escherichia coli-based expression and purification of the huntingtin protein with disease length polyglutamine tract using fluorescence-based aggregation assay. Students also investigate a novel area of research exploring the effects of macromolecular crowding agents (Ficoll, Dextran, and polyethylene glycol) on huntingtin protein aggregation
