Hands-on Learning Takes Center Stage at Beckman Service Centers

Two years ago, the team of instructors who teach Analytical Methods in Biotechnology, a Stanford engineering course, approached Jon Mulholland, director of the Cell Sciences Imaging Facility (CSIF) and Lisa Nichols, Ph.D., director of the Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) Facility, with a proposal. The instructors wanted to offer hands-on lessons in imaging and FACS technology in their course, which is designed for engineers who are interested in transitioning into biomedical research. Would Mulholland and Dr. Nichols be interested in helping to develop those lessons?

Mulholland and Dr. Nichols both leapt at the opportunity to share their knowledge and resources with a new group of students.

“A lot of what we do at the Beckman facilities is training,” says Dr. Nichols. “We often have new equipment with advanced capability, and we get really excited seeing new users learn how to get the most out of it and move up to the next level in their research.”

Mulholland, Dr. Nichols, and their staff members at CSIF and FACS put together introductory lectures on their technologies to add to the engineering course. Those were later coupled with hands-on experiments, to let the engineering students experience the imaging and FACS technology in person. In both the spring and fall semesters, Mulholland and Dr. Nichols now lead students through the lectures as well as experiential learning projects.

“They get to come in and actually handle cells, do the staining, and analyze their own samples in the instrument,” Dr. Nichols says of her segment of the course, which lasts four weeks.

“This kind of course is really essential for training the next generation of scientists, in not only how to use the technology themselves, but also how to evaluate other people’s research and understand how a technology is being used when they read papers,” Mulholland says.

“We want to give students a broad knowledge base in the technologies and techniques of microscopy, but we’re really starting out with the essentials and moving up from there,” he adds.

The hands-on components, Mulholland and Dr. Nichols say, make a big difference in conveying the complexity and power of the CSIF and FACS technologies to the engineering students.

“Some students come in with the idea that these technologies are very plug-and-play, or there are apps that can just do it all for them,” says Dr. Nichols. “When you go in and start working with the equipment yourself, you realize very quickly that there are a lot of steps you have to take if you want to really get the most out of it.”

Recently, Dr. Nichols was also invited to provide guest lectures and hands-on modules for students in Stanford’s new Master’s of Science in Translational Research and Applied Medicine (M-TRAM) program. The one-year program, which launched in September 2022, aims to provide formalized training in translational medical sciences. Like students in Analytical Methods in Biotechnology, those enrolled in
M-TRAM generally have little background in biomedical research.

CSIF and FACS both received funding through Stanford’s Community of Shared Advanced Research Platforms (c-ShARP) program to cover the cost of the guest lectures and equipment used in the programs. Mulholland and Dr. Nichols hope that the results show how valuable these kinds of hands-on classes can be, and lead to long-term funding and other opportunities.

“We’re gotten incredibly good feedback from students and, at the FACS Facility, we’re actually now involved with a few of the M-TRAM students in their ongoing research projects,” says Dr. Nichols.

“Being involved in these courses also helps spread the word about our facilities,” she adds. “We’re not just a room with a bunch of equipment; we can help you push your science forward.”