The Impact of a Semester-Long, Cell Culture and Fluorescence Microscopy CURE on Learning and Attitudes in an Underrepresented STEM Student Population.

Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) is an access institution with a diverse student body, located in metro Atlanta. To strengthen research skills, teach employer-valued cell biology laboratory techniques, and increase student engagement, a semester-long, inquiry-based CURE was developed and implemented in Cell Biology with Laboratory (BIOL3400K), a sophomore-level course, which serves as a "gateway" to all upper-level biology courses. This CURE centers on the investigation of a student-chosen experimental factor on the viability of cultured, mammalian cells.

Host and symbiont genetic contributions to fitness in a symbiosis.

The fitness effects associated with infection have wide-ranging ecological and evolutionary consequences for host species. How these effects are modulated by the relative influence of host and genomes has been described as a balancing act of genomic cooperation and conflict. For vertically transmitted symbionts, like cytoplasmic , concordant host-symbiont fitness interests would seem to select for genomic cooperation.