Cellular and Molecular Biology

Discover the structure and function of cell membranes by launching cargo molecules at a virtual cell. Apply your learning back in the lab to improve the health of synthetic cells that the lead researcher wants to use to produce insulin.

Learn about the proper techniques of isolating single colonies from a culture sample, how to use aseptic techniques and how to perform plate streaking.

The Carbohydrates Lab explores how carbohydrates are broken down by the digestive system and taken up into the bloodstream.

Find out what it’s like to work in a cell culture laboratory. Learn how to use the aseptic technique to avoid contamination of your cells, and discover what it takes to keep them alive.

Explore different cell samples under the microscope to identify the differences between eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Build the structure of an animal cell and choose the internal organelles of four specialized cells.

Join this virtual confocal microscopy lab and learn how to take pin-sharp confocal micrographs and 3D renderings. Use the knowledge to save your uncle’s crop from a mysterious plant disease.

Help basketball players understand how the food they eat gets converted to energy through glycolysis, the Krebs cycle and the electron transport chain. Use a mouse model to experiment on the effect of exercise intensity on oxygen and glucose consumption.

Help a group of engineers figure out if a mysterious dark alga is able to do photosynthesis using green light and measure this process with the Hill reaction. If it is, your work will help create a sustainable plan that will use sunlight and pollution sources for biofuel production.

Discover Next Generation Sequencing by analyzing the mRNA from pig tissues and identify a new gene linked to obesity. Confirm your results using qPCR to analyze the expression levels of your gene!

Open your eyes to the vast potential of gene regulation, where you can reprogram cells into any cell that fits your needs. Will you able to help the doctor in restoring the sight of a visually impaired girl?

Follow a couple as they go through IVF treatment in order to have a baby. Understand how traits are inherited from one generation to the next and how cell division plays an important role in forming, growing and repairing the human body.

Investigate the principles of Mendelian inheritance and help a patient determine if his future children will inherit his color-blindness.

Join a cell biology research group to find out how a poisonous compound from a yew tree can be used in cancer therapy. You will be immersed in an animation of a human cell and use light and fluorescence microscopy to study cell division.

Investigate the connection between blood vessel growth and cancer development. Use this knowledge to help the pharma company in their quest to uncover promising drug candidates to treat breast cancer patients.

Enter the virtual microscope room to see inside a tissue sample. Learn how a light microscope can magnify an image and answer biological questions.

Enter the virtual microscope room to see inside a tissue sample. Learn how a fluorescence microscope can create a high contrast image and answer biological questions.

Build your own spectrophotometer to measure the absorbance of a reaction product on Mars!

Solve a crime by using DNA fingerprinting to identify a thief. Use nucleic acid gel electrophoresis to separate and visualize DNA molecules and watch an animation to understand what happens inside the gel tank.

Build your own spectrophotometer to discover how you can measure substances with light

Investigate the principles of inheritance and draw a pedigree tree to understand how color blindness is inherited.

Investigate the principles of inheritance and help a family determine whether future generations will inherit color blindness.

Investigate the principles of Mendelian inheritance and discover how color blindness is inherited by observing chromosomal rearrangement in an animation.

Join lab assistant Marie to find out how to decide on the correct laboratory practice and personal protective equipment when dealing with hazardous chemicals. Learn the meaning of the hazard symbols and apply your knowledge with some example chemicals.

Help the basketball players understand how the food they eat gets converted to energy by investigating glycolysis, the first stage of cellular respiration.

Help a basketball team learn about what happens in the second stage of cellular respiration, the Krebs cycle, to help them improve their longevity in the game!

Take dive inside a mitochondrion to learn all about the electron transport chain (ETC) and pass on your findings to the basketball team so they can learn too!

Observe how we can monitor and better understand respiration by a method known as Respirometry. Learn the effects of exercise of respiration by observing glucose levels and oxygen consumption through a model organism: a mouse.

Join Dr. One and two colleagues on their mission to cure cancer. They are using Western blot to compare the level of p53 protein in cancerous and healthy control cells. Can you help Dr. One with the tricky membrane transfer step?

Put yourself in the place of a genetic counselor and find out if the daughter of a breast cancer patient is at a higher risk of developing breast cancer herself. Help her by constructing a pedigree and finding the defective gene by using linkage analysis.

Investigating antibody production patterns in populations helps us understand how diseases like COVID-19 spread. Conduct immunoassays to detect blood serum IgG and IgM to discover the vaccination and infection status of a community exposed to SARS-CoV-2.

The immune system is a complex structure of cells, tissues and organs that work together to protect our bodies from infection. Dive into the complex structures and functions of those organs and cells that protect us from various pathogens every day!

Help save Frank’s life by choosing the correct saline solution for an intravenous drip. Join Dr. One in the lab to discover what a hypotonic, isotonic and hypertonic solution is and how water is transported across the cell membrane in osmosis.

Analyze the microscopic structure of the small intestine and learn the advantages and limitations of light, fluorescence and electron microscopy.

Explore the structure of proteins and learn about the synthesis process inside the cells. Examine the protein sequence to understand the differences of protein synthesis in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

Investigate the principles of cancer development and cancer-related gene mutations to assess the risk of breast cancer development in a patient with a history of cancer in the family.

Investigate each step of SDS-PAGE from gel selection and sample preparation to chamber assembly and what really happens when the current turns on, to separate proteins solely by molecular weight, bringing us one step closer to identifying the protein.

Learn how to identify the key, physical characteristics of the blood components and understand their functions. Apply your knowledge to analyze patient’s blood samples and suggest possible diagnoses.