Overview
What kind of class is this?
In this class you will become an intern in the MSU CF Research Laboratory in the Department of Physiology. LB-347 is an "Apprenticeship" course where you enter a structured internship in my research laboratory in the Department of Physiology. This is a 300-level biology course, not a 300-level HPS course. This is an elective, but in some cases may be able to substitute for upper-level "topics" or laboratory classes required by your major (like 300- or 400-level PSL, CEM, BMB lab requirements, ask your advisor). If you have taken rigorous science courses in high school and at MSU, like those offered by the Honors College or Lyman Briggs College, and have had quite a bit of experience in the classroom laboratory, you may feel ready to do more, to do something real. If you have an interest in getting experience working in a real research laboratory but find it difficult to arrange, this is the course for you.

What will you learn?
This course is designed to immerse you deeply in the literature, techniques and critical thinking of research science. The course includes discussions, oral reports, group projects and reviews of current research literature, as well as laboratory experience. The purposes of this class are to enhance the your skills, experience and understanding of science and scientific research, as well as to give you the opportunity to delve deeply into a particular research field (cystic fibrosis). You will learn the techniques of cell culture, ion flux and microphysiometry and apply all the cumulative knowledge you've learned in your previous science courses to "real" research.

What research will you do?
Interns work individually, as well as in research groups, to read original and current scientific findings in CF, acquire laboratory skills and design research strategies to answer their own biological questions in cystic fibrosis. In 2004, one group of undergraduates characterized the effects of phoshodiesterase inhibitors, including Viagra (TM), on CFTR, while another studied the treatment of externally applied UTP on in NIH-3T3 mouse fibroblast cell lines and the its effect on Cl- and HCO3- ion gradients. In Fall 2003, research groups focused on topics of: "Detection of antimicrobial efflux from Calu-3 human epithelial cells expressing CFTR," and "Anion flux follows ion gradient refuting AE hypothesis for CFTR." In Fall 2001 students "Characterized the native proteins of C127 mouse mammary epithelia lines" and studied "The capacity of glycerol, a chemical chaperone, to correct DeltaF508-CFTR function." Your research group will be required to present your findings at the end of the semester as well as at the MSU UURAF Undergraduate Research Forum in April 2013.