The skills and practical core concepts involved in bioinformatics and protein purification are central to the practice of biochemistry, and therefore are central to biochemistry education. These skills are complex and require multiple weeks of lab instruction to proceed from sequence to homology model, or from DNA to purified protein. Since 2012, I have used an online tool called GENI (Guiding Education through Novel Investigation; geni-science.org) to organize practical multiweek exercises that adapt authentic research projects to undergraduate teaching labs. Protein production (7 weeks in Biochemistry II): First, I adapted my postdoctoral research in producing recombinant immunoreceptors by refolding solubilized inclusion bodies. Students made dozens of mutants of 11 NKG2D immunoreceptors and 16 MIC protein ligands in order to test protein design hypotheses including single-chain redesign of homodimers. Then, I adapted the protocols to producing 5 recombinant lipocalins in the periplasm for siderophore-binding studies. These projects taught core concepts ranging from the practical skills for IPTG-based expression and SDS-PAGE to the overall narrative of protein purification. Bioinformatics (3 weeks in Biochemistry I): Since GENI is online, bioinformatics analysis and homology modeling tools can be incorporated directly into the student protocols and data submission forms. Since 2012, these features have allowed students to analyze sequence and structural similarity for 100 paralogs of amino acid synthesis proteins and 50 lipocalins (which provided sequences for protein production). Students use novel DNA sequences to generate and validate homology models, and then predict binding characteristics from structural features of the models. These projects taught core concepts such as structural modeling and functional annotation. For these projects, GENI serves as a centralized archive that organizes the data generated by hundreds of students. For biochemists and chemists looking to adapt authentic research projects to the undergraduate teaching laboratory using GENI, the GENI consortium offers specialized training workshops as faculty development (NSF RCN-UBE # 1729944). Preliminary assessment results from multiple institutions suggest that practical skills are taught best using this practical approach, and that students gain confidence in their own ability to accomplish future academic or industrial projects.

Teaching students to apply core biochemical concepts to practical goals by completing authentic course-based research projects organized online

255th National Meeting (2018)

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