BIO 220 Laboratory Exercises
Library Assignment
Part 1. Searching Techniques (20 pts)
The purpose of this exercise is to familiarize you with searching scientific literature to gain additional information about particular topics. Formerly, this work was done exclusively in a library utilizing multi-volume, bound resources such as The Science Citation Index, Biological Abstracts, etc. Thankfully, it is much more convenient to conduct these searches at a computer terminal using the internet. Your assignment is to identify three key words associated with a cell physiology topic of your interest (some examples are provided below), and use an internet library resource to locate ten journal articles that address this topic from the last 5 years. You must then construct a bibliography in which these ten literature references are listed in alphabetical order in a standard journal format. You may use any format of your choice, as long as it includes the title of the article. The chosen format must be a standard format found in a journal that is typically in use, and it must be consistent for each listing. One example of an acceptable format is:
Gardner, P.L., G.N.K. Mbuy, M.T. Knabb. (1994) Effects of the angiotensin II antagonist
losartan on herpes simplex virus-type 2 infection of cultured vero and cardiac neonatal
myocytes. Life Sci. 55(4): 283-289.
You must then choose one of these articles, download the abstract from the internet and print a hard copy. You may use any internet resource of your choice. PubMed ( is a particularly useful and convenient search engine. This tax-payer-funded resource is maintained by the National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health. For simplicity, you may find the PubMed site address through a Google search using "PubMed" as the search topic. The West ChesterUniversity library also provides some excellent journal article search engines. These may be accessed from the WCU Library main page.
You may use the biology department computer lab, the library computers, or your personal computer. Keep in mind that on-campus computers offer expanded access to full-text electronic resources, which may not be able to be retrieved while working from an off-campus computer.
Part 2. Dissecting a Research Paper (20 pts)
Research papers are typically hard to read! They contain a lot of jargon, are often written for specialists, and the information is typically very densely packed. It is essential that students gain experience in reading and deciphering the scientific literature. For this choose, you will be reading the scientific journal article in which the abstract was chosen and printed from Part 1. Obtain a compete copy of the article (you will have to download it or get it from the library),and carefully read it (you may have to read it several times to really understand it). You should then provide a sentence by sentence translation of the complete abstract in your own words. Take each sentence and explain simply what it means within the context of the whole paper. You may need to craft two or three sentences to explain just onesentence in the abstract.
Checklist for this assignment: What should be submitted?
Part 1. Searching Techniques
To turn in:
Three key words relevant to a cell physiology topic.
Alphabetical list of 10 references. Standard format of your choice; must be consistent and contain the title of the article.
Note: Simple copy/pasting of references from PubMed is not acceptable. You may use EndNote, OneNote, or similar software for bibliography management but it is not necessary.
Hard copy of one abstract. (You may copy/paste this into your Word document.)
Part 2. Dissecting a Research Paper
To turn in:
The formatted reference for the article.
Your "in-plain-English" interpretation of the abstract. Make sure this is double-spaced. Your summary should not exceed one page.
Grading Rubric
Library assignment grading rubric: 40 pts total
Part 1: 20 pts1) name and lab section = 1 pt
2) Topic you are interested in = 1 pts
3) 3 search terms = 3 pts
4) 10 articles from the last 5 years in alphabetical order that are relevant to topic and key words = 10 pts
5) All articles formatted correctly using the format on the first page of the handout: 5 pts
Part 2:20 pts1) Identify the article that you chose from part 1.
Divide the abstract selected from Part 1 into 4 parts:
a) Background/ purpose, b) Methods, c) Results, d) Discussion
Under each section, translate the terminology using plain English and no jargon (as if you were explaining the paper to a non-scientist).
Each section = 4 pts/ 16 pts total
2) Proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling = 4 pts
This assignment is due in 2 weeks.
Sample Key Words
Design your own 3 key words or choose 3 words from the list below.
1) microorganisms, extreme environments, enzymes
2) tumor virus, oncogene, growth factor
3) bacteria, hydrocarbon, degradation
4) insects, cannibalism, chemical secretions
5) cholesterol, LDL, atherosclerosis
6) mitochondria, DNA, myopathy
7) virus, gene therapy, Alzheimer's
8) RNA, viroid, plant
9) membrane, freeze fracture, electronmicroscopy
10) prion, neuron, mad cow
11) sodium channel, receptor, purification
12) lysosome, formation, mannose-6-phosphate
13) pig, heart, xenotransplantation
14) inositol triphosphate, calcium, signal transduction
15) cyclic AMP, adenylate cyclase, G protein
16) programmed cell death, apoptosis, aging
17) adult cell, sheep, cloning
18) chaperones, protein, assembly
19) taxol, tubulin, mitosis
20) extracellular matrix, integrins, adhesion
21) Aplysia, memory, serotonin
22) nucleopores, protein, translocation
23) free radicals, antioxidants, aging
24) nitric oxide, smooth muscle, vasodilation
25) T cell, gp120, AIDS
26) cocaine, receptor, desensitization
27) dopamine, receptor, schizophrenia
28) mitochondria, DNA, evolution
29) chloride channel, cystic fibrosis, gene therapy
30) DNA, fingerprinting, forensics
Journals relevant to Cell Biology that are available at WCU
You may use other journals, as long as they are peer-reviewed.
See the WCU Library site for a current listing.
Agricultural and Biological Chemistry
American Journal of Physiology
Annual Review of Biochemistry
Annual review of cell biology
Annual Review of Physiology
Annual Review of Plant Physiologyand Plant Molecular Biology
Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Biochemical Journal
Biochemical Pharmacology
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta
Biophysical Journal
Cell
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology
Cytologia
Experimental Cell Research
FASEB Journal
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journal of Cell biology
Journal of Cellular Physiology
Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry
Journal of Lipid Research
Journal of Molecular Biology
Journal of Molecular Evolution
Journal of Neurochemistry
Journal of Ultrastructure and Molecular Structure Research
Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences
Nature
Photochemistry and Photobiology
Plant and cell Physiology
Plant Physiology
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Science