Laboratory introduction to biochemistry

The hands-on Introduction to Biochemistry laboratory course will introduce engineering students to fundamental methods and techniques commonly used in Biotechnology and Bioengineering. In this course the students will generate a cell-free transcription and translation system called the PURE system, which entails performing microbial cell culturing, polymerase chain reactions (PCRs), protein expression, protein purification, and other core molecular biology techniques. The students will then assess the functionality of their PURE systems by quantifying the expression of a green fluorescent protein (GFP).

Cell-free systems are becoming exceedingly powerful and therefore popular tools in biotechnology, bioengineering, and synthetic biology. In a recent example, the 2019 EPFL iGEM team who won the iGEM competition that year, developed a cell-free molecular diagnostic kit for the identification and differentiation of two grapevine diseases (https://2019.igem.org/Team:EPFL). In addition, we have shown in the past that cell-free systems are ideal tools for education and teaching by providing local high-schools with cell-free educational kits. The cell-free synthetic biology course is therefore exploring the possibility to leverage the resources available in higher education to generate an additional, synergistic benefit for the population. We are hoping that with this course we will be able to sustainably produce cell-free educational kits for use in local schools or EPFL student projects.

The introduction to biochemsitry lab course will consist of a couple of introductory lectures, followed by laboratory work. The students will be guided through all the required steps for each specific method and technique to generate functional cell-free systems.