Fundamental Laboratory Approaches for Biochemistry and Biotechnology

Ninfa/Ballou/Benore is a solid biochemistry lab manual, dedicatedto developing research skills in students, allowing them to learntechniques and develop the organizational approaches necessary toconduct laboratory research.

Ninfa/Ballou/Benore focuses on basic biochemistry laboratorytechniques with a few molecular biology exercises, a reflection ofmost courses which concentrate on traditional biochemistryexperiments and techniques. The manual also includes anintroduction to ethics in the laboratory, uncommon in similarmanuals. Most importantly, perhaps, is the authors' three-prongedapproach to encouraging students to think like a researchscientist: first, the authors introduce the scientific method andthe hypothesis as a framework for developing conclusiveexperiments; second, the manual's experiments are designed tobecome increasingly complex in order to teach more advancedtechniques and analysis; finally, gradually, the students arerequired to devise their own protocols. In this way, students andinstructors are able to break away from a "cookbook" approach andto think and investigate for themselves.

Suitable for lower-level and upper-level courses; Ninfa spansthese courses and can also be used for some first-year graduatework.