Dr. Jennifer Weller @ UNC Charlotte

Olympic B3 Science Summer Camp 2011 Biotechnology, Biodiversity and Bioinformatics June 14^th - June 30^th
Sponsors and Needs
The activities of this camp could not be carried out were it not for the support of a number of individuals and organizations. NC Biotech generously provided a grant in support of the lab activities in both the summer and fall.This has allowed us to buy some of the needed equipment, supplies, reagents, and disposables needed by the students. The Carolina Medical Center allowed us to select from equipment that was being replaced in their research labs, and donated some plastic tubes and pipettes, which allowed us to make more strategic use of our grant money. Greiner Bio-one has supplemented the supply of tubes and tips, and has generously allowed us to come back to them several times for assistance. In particular we would like to thank our contacts, Dr. Rafal Persinski and Ms. Mackenzie Farone for visiting the lab and seeing us in action. GreinerOne also arranged for a television interview with NewsChannel 14 to let their viewers in Charlotte know about it - the link to the clip is here: http://charlotte.news14.com/content/643207/olympic-high-school-students-learn-about-biotech-research. Dr. Weller has provided equipment loads and materials where the class supplies fell short. Graduate students Chris Overall and Shatavia Morrison of UNCC have donated their time to prepare lectures and labs and lead the activities. Their activities are supported in part by GAANN Fellowships from the US Dept of Education to UNCC, a program coordinated by Dr. Teresa Dahlberg of the Computer Science department at UNCC.
List of One-time needs (equipment) Refrigerated benchtop centrifuge with rotors for 50ml, 15 ml and 1.5-2.0 ml sample tubes (such as the one from BioRad) Bench-top autoclave, big enough for flasks of growth agar and media (VWR example is ~$5,000 without educational discount) -20C under-bench freezer. Used for molecular biology reagents like enzymes and dyes. A water-purification system to produce molecular-biology grade water (such as Barnstead NanoPure systems) Small microwave oven - for lab chemicals only (cannot use one that would be used for food) Insulated safety gloves to use with hot solutions 3 sets of micropipetters (1000ul, 100 or 200 ul and 10ul) - currently each team has 2 of the 3 which sometimes causes a bottleneck Holders for sets of micropipettes (9, one per set currently held) Red pipette pumps for 25 ml serological pipettes Two Mettler micro-scale balances - a common bottleneck in experiments Quick-spin microfuges (4, one per lab bench) UV face mask (for protection when using a transilluminator for gel viewing) Digital gel documentation station, protective door for UV use (such as the UVP system) Vortexer with tube attachments (like the VWR Genie) Standardized ice buckets (2 per bench) - we are using styrofoam boxes but for many standard racks do not fit test-tube racks for PCR tubes PCR instrument that will hold 96 tubes and can program ramp speeds. squirt bottles for solutions stock bottles for buffer and solvent storage.
List of Disposables - ongoing needs Bench Kote or other lab surface protection paper Wiegh boats/paper and spatulas to use with the balances Disposable lab coats (4 sizes, small, medium, large and extra-large) serological pipettes (1,2,5,10, 25ml) Nitrile lab gloves, disposable, 4 sizes Micropipetter tips (1000, 100, 10 ul size) Agarose for gels Acrylamide, bis, TEMED and Ammonium persulfate for gels TBE buffer for gels Loading dye for gels DNA size standards for gels Enzymes and associated chemicals for DNA and RNA work (DNA polymerase I, Reverse transcripase, RNAase H, restriction enzymes, dNTPs, NTPs, ATP, NADH, BSA) DNA, RNA and protein purification kits and solutions (such as columns for Qiagen) that allow us to avoid the use of phenol and chloroform Molecular-biology grade reagents, including NaCl, KCl. NH₄Cl, ammonium acetate, MgCl₂,magnesium acetate, EDTA, Tris-HCl and Tris Base, SDS, Tween, formamide Mortars and pestles for sample grinding (100 ml capacity) Molecular-biology grade ethanol Molecular biology grade isopropanol PCR reagents (buffer, nucleotides and enzymes) Sequencing reagent kits (this could be Sanger or PGM Next-Generation chemistry, Dr. Weller has both platforms in her lab). Cleaning supplies (paper towels, lab detergent, gloves, sponges in sufficient quantity to do properly)
Funds for Discretionary items It would be ideal if we could set up a lab fund or charge-card source (with Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Anderson as designated payer) to purchase things like: PCR primers from Operon (which are not expensive but do change with the project and so cannot be detailed ahead of time) with New England Biolabs or Promega for enzymes and associated reagents (these mostly do not have more than one-year shelf life) Micropipetter calibration Equipment maintenance Buses for field trips to collection sites. Lunches for field trips, snacks during the summer camp, food for presentation days. We are not sure how to manage this as yet, but would welcome assistence from parents or local businesses who have some experience doing this.
Class Presentations	Lists	Extra Reading
Web Links	Discussion Questions	Lab Protocols
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