Socrates Fellows Our Projects
Students will synthesize a protein as individual amino acids and function as a catalyst.
John Yamauchi (BMS) and Dominic Dirksen, a biology teacher at Steele Canyon High School, have developed kinesthetic and visual activities around protein structures and their relevance to drug development. In the kinesthetic activity, students learned about the main force contributions of protein structures. Catalytic sites were covered by having certain amino acids form a region for substrate binding and processing. Energetically favorable states for the protein were introduced as well as factors (heat, solvent,) that can disrupt these states. The 3-D protein visualization activity was developed in collaboration with Steele Canyon’s 3-D Animation Department and aim to illustrate the interactions that occur between drugs and their protein targets.
