Developing a Graduate Class on Synthetic Cells at a Minority Serving Institution: Lessons from the University of New Mexico.

Abstract

This article describes the development, methodology, enrollment, and outcomes of a graduate technical elective course on synthetic cells and organelles offered at the University of New Mexico, a minority-majority institution, in Fall 2022. The course had a significant ethics component and took advantage of readily available, low cost, and no-cost teaching materials that are available online. The course was effective in attracting a diverse enrollment of graduate students and senior undergraduates, some of whom participated in a survey of their backgrounds and motivations after the course was over. The article also provides results from this survey. Courses such as the one described have the potential to increase access and participation in emerging fields of research and technology such as synthetic cells.