Biology 196
Fundamentals of Life Science I

Are you a premed student?  Biology, or other science major?

Biology 196* is intended to serve as an intermediate level biology course with emphasis on molecular and cellular discoveries. It is a four credit lecture/laboratory course.

In addition to providing credit toward a bachelor's degree in biology, this course is essential for students working toward a career in medicine, dentistry or research in any life science. Many of the topics covered provide background for critical sections on standardized graduate entrance exams, such as the GRE, MCAT, and the DAT.

Key topics of the lecture include:

• Detailed function of cellular organelles
• Intracellular transport mechanisms
• The control of eukaryotic cell division
• Prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression
• Nucleic acids and recombinant DNA
• Signal transduction in animals and basic pharmacology
• Basic molecular biology principles and techniques

Lectures consist of two 80-minute sessions per week. There are two instructors that teach Biology 196 at CSN. Dr. Rhett Michelson at the Cheyenne campus and Dr. Ray Thweatt at the West Charleston campus.

Dr. Michelson's lecture is a mixture of projector slide-shows combined with blackboard "sketches".

The Michelson lectures are also interactive with quizzes using the system.

The Biology 196 laboratory is an informal, hands-on environment to reinforce lecture principles, but also to learn additional techniques common in a molecular biology, or biochemistry, research laboratory.

Some experimental techniques performed are:

• Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
• DNA isolation
• Partial protein purification by chromatography
• Bacterial transformation
• Restriction enzyme digestion
• Agarose gel electrophoresis

Students work in groups to perform experiments using genuine reagents and equipment found in most biochemistry or molecular biology labs.

Rhett J. Michelson, Ph.D.

CSN Dept. of Biological Sciences 
office: 2021B Cheyenne Campus
phone: (702) 651-4569
email:

I joined the Biological Sciences Dept. at CSN in Fall 2005, where I currently teach Biology 189, Fundamentals of Life Science, and Biology 196, Principles of Modern Biology I. You can also access my teaching webpage for additional details about these courses during semesters.