This book is a bridge between classic experiments in genetics and active areas of research today. The aim is to provide students with the understanding of a gene (genes) and the available tools to study gene function. The goal is for students to understand and conceptualize the fundamental concepts of a specific genetic topic, how they were tested in the past, and how they are used in the lab today. For example, if working on a project to intentionally change every nucleotide in a gene to assess the impact of those changes would benefit from knowing that in the past this experiment may have been done with chemicals that made random mutations and how the impact of those mutations was determined. The book then discusses how new, more precise techniques such as CRISPR could be used in lieu of the techniques used in the past. Using this basic format, the book covers the concepts of genetic mutation, how to create or find mutations, how to analyze the effect of mutations, how to determine whether two genes interact.