Introduction to BASIL
BASIL stands for Biochemistry Authentic Scientific Inquiry Lab. BASIL is designed for undergraduate biochemistry lab courses, but can be adapted to first year (or even high school) settings, as well as graduate coursework. In BASIL students use in silico tools to predict the function of a protein and then use in vitro methods to study the protein in the lab. The curriculum is flexible and can be adapted to match the available facilities, the strengths of the instructor and the learning goals of an institution.
Overall, the BASIL curriculum aims to get students to transition from thinking like students to thinking like scientists.
BASIL Learning Objectives
- Students will predict the function of a protein of unknown function.
- Students will create and test hypotheses.
About BASIL
- Your students will learn to use software and web applications to explore protein structure and function: sequence alignment, template-based active site alignment and molecular docking.
- Your students will also use many of the techniques that are traditionally found in biochemistry teaching labs: bacterial cell growth, protein expression, chromatography, protein concentration assays, SDS-PAGE, and enzyme activity assays.
- You can adapt this curriculum to suit your needs. For example, current BASIL faculty use some or all of the modules. Some have also incorporated other techniques, such as western blots, based on their expertise and teaching goals.