Associates Degree in General Science With a Technical Competence Area (TCA) in Biotechnology  

TCA Courses

• Introduction To Biotechnology teaches:
  • Pipetting and dilution skills
  • Use and care of basic lab instruments - balances, pH meters, conductivity meters, spectrophotometers (vis and UV), centrifuges, gel electrophoresis chambers, thermal cyclers, autoclaves, incubators, laminar flow hoods
  • Solution and buffer preparation
  • How to keep a lab notebook and importance of documentation
  • How to write an SOP
  • Quality control, quality assurance, industry regulations and standards

• Cell Culture teaches how to:
  • Use aseptic technique in culturing cells
  • Establish primary cultures
  • Maintain, count, split, and freeze cell lines
  • Check cultures for contamination, including mycoplasma
  • Determine cell viability
  • Keep lab notebook
  • Maintain CO 2 incubators and laminar flow hoods

The course's didactic instruction explains the biology and special needs of cultured cells and explores stem cells, cancer cells, and transformed cells.

• Bioinstrumentation teaches students to produce a biological product by:
  • Examining the function of an enzyme (a-amylase) in Bacillus
  • Isolating the gene for a-amylase and introducing the gene into E. coli using screening methods, gel electrophoresis, and PCR
  • Isolating and purifying large quantities of a-amylase using chromatography and spectrophotometry
  • Using probes to prove the identify of the product
  • Examine yield and purity
  • Keeping a lab notebook

• Internship - students work a minimum of 240 hours with a mentor. The last week of the semester is spent in class, presenting experiences with fellow students.