Cell Biology Laboratory

Course Description

Cell Biology Laboratory is designed to provide the fundamental training in the current techniques and methodologies used in research laboratories. Experiments cover microscopy (bright-field and fluorescence), the scientific method, biochemistry, cellular organization, structure and function relationships, cellular energetics, biotechnology, forensic investigations, and the immunology of the wound response.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, PCB is the Process Biology prefix. The University of West Florida publishes this at 1 semester hour through the Department of Biology, College of Science and Engineering. It is offered at approximately 3 Florida institutions.

⚠⚠ Read this course description carefully, because it is unusually explicit about its purpose: UWF says it provides "fundamental training in the current techniques and methodologies used in research laboratories." It is not primarily a set of demonstrations for the lecture — it is a research-methods course.

That makes it one of the higher-value laboratories in an undergraduate biology degree. Micropipetting, fluorescence microscopy, gel electrophoresis, spectrophotometry and sterile technique are the skills that get a student into a research laboratory, an internship, or a technician post — and they are learned by doing, not by reading.

⚠ The topic list is broader than the title suggests, reaching into biotechnology, forensic investigation and immunology of the wound response. Treat the breadth as the point: the through line is the technique, not the organism.

⚠ The contact-hour figure is derived — the University of West Florida publishes none

UWF's catalog publishes a credit value in semester hours, the college and department, prerequisites and co-requisites, and fee notices. It does not publish contact hours, a lecture and laboratory split, or terms of offering for any course. Every contact-hour value in a UWF guide in this repository is derived. The figure applies the convention established for science laboratories at UWF — 45 contact hours for 1 semester hour, matching the live EVR2001L and OCE1001L rather than the 30 used for allied-health teaching laboratories. A 1-credit science laboratory meeting three hours a week across a fifteen-week term reaches 45, which is the usual shape. Confirm the meeting schedule with the department.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Apply biosafety and laboratory safety practice appropriate to a cell biology laboratory.
• Use bright-field microscopy competently including proper illumination.
• Use fluorescence microscopy and interpret fluorescent images.
• Prepare specimens appropriately for microscopic examination.
• Use micropipettes accurately and verify their accuracy.
• Prepare solutions, buffers, and dilutions correctly.
• Apply the scientific method to design a controlled experiment.
• Perform basic biochemical assays including protein quantification.
• Use spectrophotometry and construct a standard curve.
• Perform gel electrophoresis and interpret the results.
• Apply basic biotechnology techniques used in research laboratories.
• Perform assays relevant to cellular energetics.
• Relate observed cell structure to cellular function.
• Apply techniques used in forensic investigation contexts.
• Describe and observe the immunology of the wound response.
• Keep a laboratory notebook another worker could reproduce from.
• Analyse quantitative laboratory data appropriately.
• Evaluate sources of error and the limits of a measurement.
• Write a scientific laboratory report in standard format.

Optional Outcomes

• Read and interpret a primary research paper in the field.
• Relate the material to a Florida ecosystem, organism, or health problem.
• Describe current research directions in the area.
• Describe how the material supports graduate or professional study.
• Seek undergraduate research experience related to the topic.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Biosafety and laboratory safety
• Bright-field microscopy
• Fluorescence microscopy
• Specimen preparation
• Micropipetting and accuracy
• Solutions, buffers, dilutions
• The scientific method and experimental design
• Biochemical assays
• Spectrophotometry and standard curves
• Gel electrophoresis
• Biotechnology techniques
• Cellular energetics assays
• Cellular organization and structure-function
• Forensic investigation techniques
• Immunology of the wound response
• Laboratory notebooks
• Quantitative data analysis
• Error and measurement limits
• Scientific reporting

Optional Topics

• Primary literature
• Florida applications
• Current research directions
• Graduate and professional preparation
• Undergraduate research

Resources & Tools

• The laboratory manual the instructor issues — in a techniques course this is the text, and reading the protocol before the session is the difference between learning and following.
• A bound laboratory notebook — a research-methods course is the right place to build the habit of a notebook someone else could reproduce your work from.
• JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) — frequently available through the UWF library; video protocols for most of these techniques, and far more useful than a written protocol for learning technique.
• Bio-Rad Explorer and Addgene protocol pages — free; clear, reliable protocol write-ups for electrophoresis and molecular methods.
• ImageJ / Fiji — free; the standard image-analysis package in cell biology, and worth learning here rather than under deadline in a research project.
• NCBI (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) — free; PubMed, GenBank, BLAST and the rest of the toolkit, used professionally rather than only pedagogically.
• A UWF librarian — included in enrolment; an hour on database searching pays for itself across a whole degree.

Career Pathways

• Biological technicians — SOC 19-4021; the common direct entry point with a bachelor's degree.
• Biological scientists — SOC 19-1020; ⚠ independent research roles generally require a doctorate, and this is worth knowing early rather than late.
• Medical and clinical laboratory technologists — SOC 29-2011; ⚠ note that Florida licenses clinical laboratory personnel, so a biology degree alone does not permit bench work in a clinical laboratory — see the MLS prefix guides.
• Biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry — research associate, quality control and manufacturing roles; molecular technique competence is the entry currency.
• Environmental and conservation science — SOC 19-2041; Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, water management districts, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and consulting firms.
• Marine and coastal science — a genuine Florida strength, including NOAA, Florida Sea Grant, Mote Marine Laboratory and the estuarine programmes on the Gulf coast near UWF.
• Public health laboratories — the Florida Department of Health Bureau of Public Health Laboratories.
• Science teaching — SOC 25-2031; ⚠ Florida K-12 teaching requires state certification that a biology degree alone does not provide.
• Professional and graduate pathways — medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, physician assistant, pharmacy, and research doctorates. This prefix is the core of a pre-health undergraduate plan.
• ⚠ An honest note on laboratory experience. Coursework laboratories are necessary and not sufficient — undergraduate research with a faculty member is what distinguishes a competitive graduate or professional applicant, and it is arranged by asking, usually earlier than students think.

Special Information

⚠⚠ PCB3103 and PCB3103L — how the pair is bound

• UWF publishes a Co-requisite: PCB3103 field on the laboratory entry. The lecture does not name the laboratory in return, so the binding runs one way — a student can take the lecture without the laboratory.
• ⚠ Many Florida institutions carry this material as a single integrated C course. UWF splits it into separately numbered lecture and laboratory, and SCNS equivalency does not cross numbers — so transfer between the two forms is evaluated by hand. Carry a syllabus in either direction.
• Take them together where the department intends it. The laboratory is designed to run alongside the lecture topics.
• ⚠ Budget for the pair. It is 4 semester hours in total, not 3, and the laboratory carries its own scheduled session.

⚠⚠ UWF says this laboratory "can be taken independently" — and also lists the lecture as a prerequisite

• The description says the laboratory "is to complement the cell biology lecture, however can be taken independently." The prerequisite field says PCB 3103*.
• These are not quite the same statement. The asterisk permits the lecture to be taken in the same term rather than beforehand, which is close to independence in scheduling terms — but it still names the lecture as a requirement.
• ⚠ The practical reading: you do not have to have finished the lecture first, and the laboratory is designed to stand up on its own as technique training. Whether it can be taken with no lecture at all is a question for the department, not for this guide.
• This guide reproduces both statements as published rather than choosing between them. If your plan depends on the answer, get it in writing from an advisor before you register.

⚠⚠ The asterisk in a UWF prerequisite means the course may be taken at the same time

• UWF marks a concurrent course with an asterisk, defined on the catalog's Course Information page as: "This course may be taken prior to or during the same term."
• ⚠ A prerequisite written WITHOUT an asterisk must be completed first; one written WITH an asterisk may be taken in the same term. Reading an asterisked prerequisite as sequential adds a term for no reason.
• UWF also uses an explicit Co-requisite: field, which is the stricter form — conventionally meaning the same term rather than prior-or-same. Both notations appear in this prefix.
• Confirm with an advisor; the registration system, not the catalog text, is what enforces it.

⚠⚠ Biology laboratory safety

• Know the location of the eyewash, safety shower, fire extinguisher and spill kit before you start work. That is a real instruction rather than a formality.
• ⚠ Eye protection and a lab coat are required, closed shoes are required, and never eat, drink or store food in a laboratory.
• Microbiological work is conducted at the containment level the organism requires, and ⚠ cultures are never opened outside the appropriate containment. Everything is autoclaved or disinfected before disposal.
• ⚠⚠ Human tissue, blood and body fluids are handled under Standard Precautions and are treated as infectious regardless of source. Sharps go into a sharps container at the point of use, and needles are never recapped by hand.
• Chemical hazards are real in a molecular laboratory — some nucleic acid stains and fixatives are mutagenic or carcinogenic, and phenol and chloroform cause chemical burns. Read the safety data sheet before first use, not after.
• ⚠ Ultraviolet transilluminators cause eye and skin burns; use the shield.
• Report every spill, cut and exposure immediately, however minor it seems.
• Tell the instructor if you are pregnant or immunocompromised; several standard laboratory materials and organisms warrant substitution.

Course format and position in the curriculum

• Scheduled laboratory sessions with pre-laboratory preparation and written work.
• ⚠ No "permission is required" marking appears anywhere in the PCB prefix, unlike UWF's clinical health prefixes — enrolment is gated by prerequisites rather than by cohort admission.
• UWF publishes no contact hours, lecture and laboratory split, or terms of offering for any course. Confirm the offering pattern with the department.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement. ⚠ For biology the specific transfer hazard is the split-versus-integrated question: UWF numbers lecture and laboratory separately where many institutions use one C course, and SCNS equivalency does not cross numbers. Carry a syllabus, and expect a transfer evaluation of either half to be done by hand.

PCB3103L is 1 semester hour at the University of West Florida.