Campbell’s Genomics Textbook Breaks Ground in Science Education
Emily Oldham '03 and Malcolm Campbell
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10/28/2002
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
No one may know who wrote the first algebra textbook, or sociology textbook. But history can definitively note that the first genomics textbook originated in the Davidson College biology department!
The eleven Davidson students who opened their hot-off-the-press copies of Discovering Genomics, Proteomics, and Bioinformatics this semester embarked on a probe of the still-mysterious world of genetic interaction with their professor and the book's principal author, Associate Professor Malcolm Campbell. His faculty colleague, Assistant Professor Laurie Heyer of the mathematics department, contributed several dozen "Math Minutes" for the book that enhance the understanding of biology through math.
It's the first textbook ever written in this rapidly developing field that promises revolutionary improvements in medical care and food production. As a trailblazer in the field, Campbell felt a strong responsibility to establish a pedagogy for the future of genomics studies in his book.
He chose to present the material in case-based studies, leading students to approach the course as professional researchers approach their work.
Campbell therefore posed broad questions as the titles of each section. They include: “Where did humans evolve?” “Can we invent new types of medication using genomic information?” “Are genetically modified organisms bad?” “Can we understand cancer better by understanding its circuitry?” and “Why can’t I just take a pill to lose weight?”
As the text of each section explores those questions, it frequently refers students to Web sites and on-line databases developed and maintained by scientists engaged in genomics research. Those original sources, and data printed in the book, appear in unedited form. Students in the class learn to read and interpret that data on their own, developing valuable skills in real-world scientific analysis. Campbell said, "It’s important that students discover genomics by taking an active part in the process. In traditional textbooks they often just learn to repeat something printed on the page. We make them learn it from the ground up, and find that they understand it much more thoroughly that way.”
Because the book requires students to refer so often to Web sites, it has been assembled with a special binding that allows it to easily lie flat on a table beside a computer. Microarray images and all art and figures in the book are also available on an accompanying CD-ROM. A Discovering Genomics, Proteomics, and Bioinformatics Web site keeps students updated about cutting-edge research.
Campbell’s treatment of the course as a research investigation extends to testing as well. All tests are open book and take-home, challenging students to find and interpret data to answer questions, rather than asking them to repeat material presented in class.
The textbook is being employed this semester only at Davidson and James Madison University, but Campbell expects it will be adopted at many other institutions in the next few semesters. He has received queries from professors at several colleges and medical schools, and the publishers are already working on a translation that has been ordered for three medical schools in Hungary.
The novelty of the book, and genomics study in general, means that many current professors know little more about the subject than their students. One professor admitted to him, “I’ll have to study this before I can teach it.”
The field will begin to develop much more rapidly, Campbell pointed out, when his students and others like them finish graduate studies and make their influence felt in academic institutions and industry.
Campbell taught the beta version of his genomics course a year ago using a photocopied pre-press draft of the book. The finished volume, co-published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press and Benjamin Cummings in their first-ever joint venture, arrived in Davidson in September, three weeks after classes started.
The knowledge of genomics at this early stage of the field's development provides young people with wonderful early career opportunities. Campbell pointed out examples of several May 2002 Davidson graduates who took the course last year as seniors. He said, "Elizabeth Sellars now works at the National Institutes of Health in a genomics lab, Liz Shafer got a job at Harvard in a lab that’s doing pharmacogenomics, and Dennis Jones, an econ major who interviewed with investment firms, told me that everyone he talked to wanted to know about his genomics work."
One of last year's students, current senior Emily Oldham, is already conducting research that will help set industry-wide standards. Oldham created her own major in genomics and hopes to pursue her studies of the field through medical and Ph.D. degrees. She is working this year in Campbell's lab conducting control experiments on DNA microarrays. Campbell said, "She's already heard from a company interested in using her design to help teachers in high schools and colleges nationwide."
With a discipline evolving as fast as genomics, Campbell expects that a second edition of the textbook will be necessary in a minimum of three years. He is currently writing a grant proposal to fund that edition, which he hopes will include an interactive DVD.
Publication of the book is an important manifestation of Campbell's leadership in the field of genomics study. But he's also doing other things to establish Davidson as a hub of genomics activity. In 1999 he founded the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT) to help produce and distribute microarray "chips" affordably for undergraduate research. The consortium has grown to include fifty colleges and universities nationwide.
He speaks about his work in undergraduate genomics at professional conferences nationwide, and publishes his own papers in journals. He has been invited to talk about GCAT as a model of collaboration between institutions during an upcoming conference at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The payoff for his efforts is the admiration of colleagues, rapid growth of GCAT, and the occasional serendipitous event. He recalled a recent speaking engagement where someone from New York State's new $200 million bioinformatics program heard him speak. "The man was so inspired that he offered the services of their new protein chip reader to the GCAT community. If next year we have both a DNA chip reader and a protein chip reader it would be great! But it would also tremendously increase our work load. I always said I wanted Davidson to be at the center of genomics education, and now I'm realizing that you have to be careful what you wish for!"
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