Alliance for Global Health and Science & Makerere University– 2017 Summer Workshop

This 2-week workshop is hosted by UC Berkeley’s Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases and the Alliance for Global Health and Science. It will be held at the Mulago Campus of Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda between July 24 – August 4. The workshop will include 5 different lab science workshop subjects and multiple lectures held by UC Berkeley and UCSF faculty.

Dates:
Week 1: July 24 – July 28

• Bioinformatics: RNAseq
• Scientific Grant Writing
• Recombineering: Making Gene Knockouts in Mycobacterium smegmatis

Week 2: July 31 – August 4

• Tissue Culture and Intracellular Bacterial Growth Curves
• Protein Purification for the Molecular Biology Laboratory

Workshop Descriptions:
Bioinformatics Workshop:
This workshop will cover both theory and tools associated with command-line RNA-seq data analysis. Participants will explore experimental design, cost estimation, data generation, and analysis of RNA-Seq data. Participants will explore software and protocols, create and modify workflows, and diagnose/treat problematic data utilizing high performance computing services.

Scientific Grant Writing Workshop:
The grant proposal writing workshop will provide scientists with the skills and tools they need to compete successfully for scarce funding opportunities. By the end of the workshop, students will have a solid first draft of a grant proposal ready for submission. This workshop will focus on molecular epidemiology and laboratory-based science grant writing.

Recombineering: Making Gene Knockouts in Mycobacterium smegmatis Workshop:
The Making Gene Knockouts in Mycobacterium smegmatis workshop will teach students the method of genetic recombineering in the context of Mycobacterium genetics. Recombineering is facilitated by phage-derived recombination proteins and allows for direct DNA manipulation without relying on in vitro techniques. The process will involve plasmid digestion, phage amplification, and Mycobacterium transduction.

Tissue Culture and Intracellular Bacterial Growth Curves Workshop:
The Tissue Culture and Intracellular Bacterial Growth Curves workshop will train students in tissue culture technique and how to perform intracellular bacterial growth curves using J774 cells and Listeria. Students will learn to maintain a cell culture line, seed cells, and plot intracellular growth curves.

Protein Purification for the Molecular Biology Laboratory Workshop:
The Protein Purification for the Molecular Biology Laboratory workshop will instruct students in expression, purification, and quantification of reverse transcriptase. Students will gain experience in plasmid transformation, RT expression and purification techniques, and learn to assay for enzyme activity.