LAB 6 MINI REPORT
Refer to the general guidelines for Mini Lab Reports on Canvas, found here (link opens in a new tab): Lab Mini Reports
This report is done in pairs.
Introduction (draft 2)
This week, you will write a second draft of the Introduction section for your final lab report. Now that you know more about HCAII and the experiments, try to improve and expand upon your first draft.
To make this process easier, a sample final report is provided here. Please note that this is just a sample report, and the requirements or experimental details might be different from mini reports.
Your Introduction should be 2 double-spaced pages long.
The introduction provides the context for your report by summarizing what is currently known about your topic and stating the hypotheses or questions you are studying. The introduction should briefly describe the rationale of the work and the approach you took. Use the active voice. When presenting published information, use the present tense (i.e. this is what we currently know). Introductions start out with a description of the general background about the problem and focus down to the specific problem you are studying.
Your introduction should address the following:
- What is the protein you are working on and why is it interesting? Use 4–5 literature sources (at least 3 from the primary literature) for this section and be sure to reference all of your sources. Include a helpful figure of HCAII.
- What is the hypothesis or question you are addressing with this project? Write something specific to your mutation!
- Give a general description of the experiments you used to address your question/hypothesis.
Draft Methods for Labs 2-6
Please aim to keep your Draft Methods section to a maximum of five pages.
This week, you will start to assemble a cohesive Methods section to be used in your Final Lab Report. Refer to the Final Lab Report assignment details on Canvas (link opens in a new tab): Final Lab Report
Be sure to incorporate feedback you received from your TAs on your previous mini reports.
A few general reminders for lab 6:
- State clearly that you are inducing wt and mutant protein. Do not say “mutant” or “mutant 1”; instead, always write out the actual mutation you are testing (i.e. N62W).
- The amount of IPTG added
- State the exact sample times (i.e. 32 minutes), if they varied at all from what was written in the lab manual.
- Describe the sample measurement and preparation steps.
- Describe the steps and storage of the induced culture.