Genetic Engineering in the Classroom

Genetic engineering may be the single most important development in biology in the last 20 years. Bio Rad is a terrific Bay Area company that sells easy to use kits that can be used in the classroom. Bio Rad’s pGLO transformation kit (see below) essentially allows students to insert the Green Fluorescence Protein (GFP) from a jellyfish and insert it into E. coli bacteria. With this inserted gene the bacteria make GFP and thus the bacteria glow green under UV light. The name of the kit is the pGLO Bacterial Transformation Kit. For detailed explanation of the kit, see video below.

pGLO kit

kit contents

video demonstration of kit