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Protein Structure in Context: The Landscape of Angiogenesis
Author(s) -
Pellmann Elise Arielle,
Goodsell David,
Ramchandran Ramani,
Franzen Margaret,
Herman Timothy,
Sem Daniel
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.1031.10
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , function (biology) , angiogenesis , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , cancer research , paleontology
The aim of this work was to identify gaps in undergraduate students’ biochemistry knowledge and to create novel educational tools to address these gaps. We present a case study in which new teaching methods, including 3‐D protein models, were employed in the teaching of protein structure and function in an upper‐division biochemistry course. Final class projects on proteins in the VEGF‐angiogenesis pathway revealed that a number of students had a poor understanding of how protein functions are integrated in a signaling cascade. We thus reasoned the need for a visual device to build students’ awareness of protein biochemistry principles in their physiologically relevant context—in this case, the context of signal transduction. A collaboration among students, teachers, researchers, and a molecular artist resulted in a painting of a cellular landscape depicting VEGF signaling; we believe its construction and future classroom use in parallel with the introduction of 3‐D protein models is a powerful approach to teaching biochemistry, providing direct visual connection of macromolecular structure to cellular function. This work was supported in part by NIH research grants HL102745–01A1 and HL112639–01 and by NSF CREST grant CCLI #1022793.