About

CURE and Its Definition 

The Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) is a pedagogical approach that integrates scientific research into undergraduate curriculum. It provides students with the opportunity to conduct research in a classroom setting. According to CUREnet, a CURE can be defined as: “a project that engages whole classes of students in addressing a research question or problem that is of interest to the scientific community.”

MPG CURE Establishment 

The Mutant-Phenotype-Genotype (MPG) CURE was originally established in 2018 for an entry-level cell and molecular biology laboratory course (BS171) (Liu et al., 2021a; Liu et al., 2021b). The goal of the MPG CURE is to bridge scientific research and undergraduate education by providing students with hands-on research experience in a classroom setting. Notably, discoveries made in the classroom can be further investigated in the laboratory, thereby contributing to scientific research.   

MPG Curriculum Evolution 

The MPG CURE curriculum has evolved following scientific advancements made in the research laboratory, resulting in two versions of the curriculum by the spring semester of 2025. The first version included experiments on mutant selection, genotyping, and lipid and pigment extraction (Liu et al., 2021a; Liu et al., 2021b). As the research project progressed, whole-genome DNA sequencing data for several mutants became available. We redesigned the CURE to align with the core biological concepts outlined in the Framework for K-12 Science Education from the National Research Council of the National Academies, developed a Bioinformatics module to replace the lipid module and designed a phenotyping lab that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative approaches. These updates led to the development of the second version of the curriculum, which integrates learning modules on phenotyping, genotyping and bioinformatics (Liu & Benning, 2024).

Funding Support

• National Science Foundation MCB-2203474
• MSU Catalyst Innovation Funding for Teaching and Learning Innovation