CHROMATOGRAPHY, Vol. 28 (2007), No. 3, pp. -137

This review updates the earlier one in this journal on our collaborative research program in invertebrate biology and analytical chemistry at Lafayette College. This review covers the 2001-2007 period in which 19 different undergraduates published 44 peer reviewed papers with us. Most of the studies used quantitative thin layer chromatography to examine various analytes in medically important snails, leeches. parasitic flatworms, and mouse feces and urine. The analytes studied were lipids, lipophilic pigments, carbohydrates, amino acids, bile pigments and metallic ions. High.performance liquid chromatography, atomic absorption spectrometry, and inductively coupled plasma-atomic absorption emission spectrometry were also used in some of the studies. Involving undergraduate students in research can provide extraordinary benefits for their education and professional development and is the ultimate mechanism in the problem based learning approach that is becoming increasingly used to teach chemistry and other science courses. The interdisciplinary research model described has allowed undergraduate students to independently complete research projects that are publishable in high quality peer reviewed journals. The research experience is usually the defining undergraduate endeavor of these students, most of whom pursue careers in the chemical or biochemical sciences or medicine, and the resultant publications allow them to compete successfully for entrance into highly prestigious graduate programs.