| Blastomycosis, a systemic fungal disease, is a challenge to diagnose rapidly and correctly. This study presents the development and evaluation of a slide agglutination assay for the detection of antibody to Blastomyces dermatitidis the causative agent of blastomycosis. Procedures for the passive adsorption of lysate proteins from B. dermatitidis were evaluated. Lysates from different strains of B. dermatitidis were evaluated with lysate ER-593 providing sensitivities of 82% and specificities of 100%. These procedures of the agglutination assay were also integrated into a lab exercise for the Immunology teaching lab at Idaho State University to increase understanding of the development of clinical diagnostic assays and specifically the agglutination assay.;Bioinformatics is a rapidly growing field of biology that is given little attention in general biology courses. It has been suggested that bioinformatics be taught using a problem based learning approach (2). In this study, an online case study that addresses human health issues, specifically, the evolution of antibiotic resistance in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), was developed to teach bioinformatics tools in general biology courses. Participating students gained understanding of the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) as well as understanding of concepts of evolution.;(2) See dissertation for references. |
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