The Use of Podcast as a Teaching Tool for a Pharmacy Compounding Pre-Laboratory Lecture: A Survey Based Study

Objective: To determine the opinions of pharmacy students towards use of podcast as a replacement to a traditional pre-laboratory lecture for a compounding course. Methods: Second year pharmacy students were asked to view a podcast prior to their laboratory section as a replacement to an in-class pre-laboratory lecture. A voluntary survey was administered to obtain student feedback regarding the usefulness of podcasts and preferences for its use in future. Results: A total of 192 out of 232 students responded to the survey conducted during 2011, 2012 and 2013. Of these, 94% of respondents reported viewing entire/ parts of the podcast. Total of 44% viewed it multiple times. Of the students who watched the podcast, 91% reported it was an effective learning tool, and 47% suggested podcasts should be used as a replacement to traditional, in-class lectures. Conclusions: Students responded positively and preferred the podcast as either a replacement or as a supplement to traditional in-class lecture

The Design of a Sterile Product Laboratory Module as Preparation for an Institutional IPPE Course

Objectives: To develop a pharmaceutics laboratory module on compounded sterile products for the second year pharmacy students as preparation for an institutional pharmacy experiential course. Method: A 5-week lab module was designed and implemented as part of the Pharmaceutics Lab Course to provide training in the basic skills of sterile product compounding. The module included techniques in the handling of sterile products, aseptic techniques, medium risk products, and hazardous products. A practical exam was given at the end of this module to ensure student competency. Upon completion of the lab module, students enrolled in a required 4-week institutional pharmacy experiential course (IPPE-2), where students were required to compound a minimum of 10 sterile products. Students were then asked to participate in a survey assessing the effectiveness and relevance of the lab module as preparation for their IPPE-2. Results: The sterile product lab module was offered in the spring semester with 75 students enrolled. All students passed the sterile product lab module and continued onto the IPPE-2 course during the following summer. The student survey indicated that the students felt well prepared for the IPPE-2 and that the preceptors were satisfied with their prior training in sterile compounding. The average scores ranged from 4.8 - 6.5 (scale of 1-7) for the various products addressed in the lab module. Implications: The 5-week sterile product lab module progressively prepares the students with the basic skills and knowledge in compounding sterile products. This preparedness allows the students to transition smoothly into the subsequent institutional pharmacy experiential course. Copyright © 2011 American Association of Colleges of Pharmac

Precisely timed regulation of enhancer activity defines the binary expression pattern of Fushi tarazu in the Drosophila embryo

The genes that drive development each typically have many different enhancers. Properly coordinating the action of these different enhancers is crucial to correctly specifying cell-fate decisions, yet it remains poorly understood how their activity is choregraphed in time. To shed light on this question, we used recently developed single-cell live imaging tools to dissect the regulation of Fushi tarazu (Ftz) in Drosophila melanogaster embryos. Ftz is a transcription factor that is expressed in asymmetric stripes by two distinct enhancers: autoregulatory and zebra. The anterior edge of each stripe needs to be sharply defined to specify essential lineage boundaries. Here, we tracked how boundary cells commit to either a high-Ftz or low-Ftz fate by measuring Ftz protein traces in real time and simultaneously quantifying transcription from the endogenous locus and individual enhancers. This revealed that the autoregulatory enhancer does not establish this fate choice. Instead, it perpetuates the decision defined by zebra. This is contrary to the prevailing view that autoregulation drives the fate decision by causing bi-stable Ftz expression. Furthermore, we showed that the autoregulatory enhancer is not activated based on a Ftz-concentration threshold but through a timing-based mechanism. We hypothesize that this is regulated by several ubiquitously expressed pioneer-like transcription factors, which have recently been shown to act as timers in the embryo. Our work provides new insight into how precisely timed enhancer activity can directly regulate the dynamics of gene regulatory networks, which may be a general mechanism for ensuring that embryogenesis runs like clockwork

Genome-in-a-Box: Building a Chromosome from the Bottom up

Chromosome structure and dynamics are essential for life, as the way that our genomes are spatially organized within cells is crucial for gene expression, differentiation, and genome transfer to daughter cells. There is a wide variety of methods available to study chromosomes, ranging from live-cell studies to single-molecule biophysics, which we briefly review. While these technologies have yielded a wealth of data, such studies still leave a significant gap between top-down experiments on live cells and bottom-up in vitro single-molecule studies of DNA-protein interactions. Here, we introduce "genome-in-a-box"(GenBox) as an alternative in vitro approach to build and study chromosomes, which bridges this gap. The concept is to assemble a chromosome from the bottom up by taking deproteinated genome-sized DNA isolated from live cells and subsequently add purified DNA-organizing elements, followed by encapsulation in cell-sized containers using microfluidics. Grounded in the rationale of synthetic cell research, the approach would enable to experimentally study emergent effects at the global genome level that arise from the collective action of local DNA-structuring elements. We review the various DNA-structuring elements present in nature, from nucleoid-associated proteins and SMC complexes to phase separation and macromolecular crowders. Finally, we discuss how GenBox can contribute to several open questions on chromosome structure and dynamics. BN/Cees Dekker La

The Use of Podcast as a Teaching Tool for a Pharmacy Compounding Pre-Laboratory Lecture: A Survey Based Study

Objective: To determine the opinions of pharmacy students towards use of podcast as a replacement to a traditional pre-laboratory lecture for a compounding course. Methods: Second year pharmacy students were asked to view a podcast prior to their laboratory section as a replacement to an in-class pre-laboratory lecture. A voluntary survey was administered to obtain student feedback regarding the usefulness of podcasts and preferences for its use in future. Results: A total of 192 out of 232 students responded to the survey conducted during 2011, 2012 and 2013. Of these, 94% of respondents reported viewing entire/ parts of the podcast. Total of 44% viewed it multiple times. Of the students who watched the podcast, 91% reported it was an effective learning tool, and 47% suggested podcasts should be used as a replacement to traditional, in-class lectures. Conclusions: Students responded positively and preferred the podcast as either a replacement or as a supplement to traditional in-class lecture

Using Interprofessional Education as a Means to Enhance Personal and Professional Development

The ACPE 2016 standards have increased emphasis on Interprofessional Education (IPE) and skills in the affective domain such as personal and professional development. The Wegmans School of Pharmacy (WSOP) at St. John Fisher College has prepared for the transition to the new standards by incorporating IPE into the pre-APPE (Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience) curriculum so that students improve their communication skills, plan for their professional development, and learn to deal effectively with other healthcare providers. WSOP has incorporated TeamSTEPPS® training into its curriculum. TeamSTEPPS® is an evidence-based teamwork system designed to improve communication and teamwork skills among healthcare professionals. Training is comprised of preparatory work, a 4-hour workshop, and learning scenarios in groups. Both nursing and pharmacy faculty co-present modules using the TeamSTEPPS® slides followed by an online post-work assessment and course evaluation surveys. WSOP students also experience several thorough and unique exercises during their Introduction to Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE) III and IV. The IPPE-III course places students in a long-term care facility, each paired with a patient. Students spend over 10 hours on-site interviewing the patient, working up a comprehensive medication plan, and interacting with members of the healthcare team. 15 hours of IPPE-III classroom time supplement this training through lectures offered by different members of the health care team sharing their roles and perspectives. The IPPE-IV class offers additional classroom instruction focused on the skills needed to succeed on advanced rotations. This course requires an additional 30 hours onsite, working closely with the WSOP clinical faculty

Using Interprofessional Education as a Means to Enhance Personal and Professional Development

The ACPE 2016 standards have increased emphasis on Interprofessional Education (IPE) and skills in the affective domain such as personal and professional development. The Wegmans School of Pharmacy (WSOP) at St. John Fisher College has prepared for the transition to the new standards by incorporating IPE into the pre-APPE (Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience) curriculum so that students improve their communication skills, plan for their professional development, and learn to deal effectively with other healthcare providers. WSOP has incorporated TeamSTEPPS® training into its curriculum. TeamSTEPPS® is an evidence-based teamwork system designed to improve communication and teamwork skills among healthcare professionals. Training is comprised of preparatory work, a 4-hour workshop, and learning scenarios in groups. Both nursing and pharmacy faculty co-present modules using the TeamSTEPPS® slides followed by an online post-work assessment and course evaluation surveys. WSOP students also experience several thorough and unique exercises during their Introduction to Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE) III and IV. The IPPE-III course places students in a long-term care facility, each paired with a patient. Students spend over 10 hours on-site interviewing the patient, working up a comprehensive medication plan, and interacting with members of the healthcare team. 15 hours of IPPE-III classroom time supplement this training through lectures offered by different members of the health care team sharing their roles and perspectives. The IPPE-IV class offers additional classroom instruction focused on the skills needed to succeed on advanced rotations. This course requires an additional 30 hours onsite, working closely with the WSOP clinical faculty

On-chip density-based purification of liposomes

Due to their cell membrane-mimicking properties, liposomes have served as a versatile research tool in science, from membrane biophysics and drug delivery systems to bottom-up synthetic cells. We recently reported a novel microfluidic method, Octanol-assisted Liposome Assembly (OLA), to form cell-sized, monodisperse, unilamellar liposomes with excellent encapsulation efficiency. Although OLA provides crucial advantages over alternative methods, it suffers from the presence of 1-octanol droplets, an inevitable by-product of the production process. These droplets can adversely affect the system regarding liposome stability, channel clogging, and imaging quality. In this paper, we report a density-based technique to separate the liposomes from droplets, integrated on the same chip. We show that this method can yield highly pure (>95%) liposome samples. We also present data showing that a variety of other separation techniques (based on size or relative permittivity) were unsuccessful. Our density-based separation approach favourably decouples the production and separation module, thus allowing freshly prepared liposomes to be used for downstream on-chip experimentation. This simple separation technique will make OLA a more versatile and widely applicable tool.BN/Cees Dekker La