Mitochondrial beta-oxidation is one of the most common modes of fatty acids' oxidation in most organisms, particularly mammals. Biochemistry undergraduate curriculum often contains the description of the process, with emphasis on ATP calculations for various types of fatty acids. During our decade long teaching experience in biochemistry, we…

Learning metabolic pathways is vital for understanding biochemical processes and all of their implications for life. Their learning in the virtual environment is complex and generative learning strategies, such as the construction of online conceptual maps, can help in this process. This article presents a proposal for the collaborative…

According to the most recent data from the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, between 2001 and 2011, more than 120 university laboratory accidents have caused injuries (including one death) and millions of dollars in damages. Laboratory-safety lessons normally comprise lecture slides alongside occasional movies and tours of…

Understanding of proteins and other biological macromolecules must be based on an appreciation of their 3-dimensional shape and the fine details of their structure. Conveying these details in a clear and stimulating fashion can present challenges using conventional approaches and 2-dimensional monitors and projectors. Here we describe a method for…

Teaching the subject of the electron transport chain is one of the most challenging aspects of the chemistry curriculum at the high school level. This article presents an educational program called "Electron Transport Chain" which consists of 14 visual animations including a biochemistry quiz. The program was created in the Adobe Flash…

The web has created new possibilities for collaboration that fit under the terms crowdsourcing and human-based computation. Crowdsourcing applies when a task or problem is outsourced to an undefined public rather than a specific body. Human-based computation refers to ways that humans and computers can work together to solve problems. These two…

A drug discovery project has been successfully implemented in a first-year general, organic, and biochemistry (GOB) health science course and second-year organic undergraduate chemistry course. This project allows students to apply the fundamental principles of chemistry and biology to a problem of medical significance, practice basic laboratory…

Despite many apparent advantages, including security, back-up, remote access, workflow, and data management, the use of electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) in the modern research laboratory is still developing. This presents a challenge to instructors who want to give undergraduate students an introduction to the kinds of data curation and…

DockoMatic 2.0 is a powerful open source software program (downloadable from sourceforge.net) that allows users to utilize a readily accessible computational tool to explore biomolecules and their interactions. This manuscript describes a practical tutorial for use in the undergraduate curriculum that introduces students to macromolecular…

The CHROM Web applet has been used to create a new active-learning exercise in which students design a purification scheme for a recombinant protein using ion-exchange chromatography (IEC). To successfully complete the exercise, students are challenged to apply elementary concepts from acid-base chemistry as well as protein and amino acid…

Over the past 20 years, the biological sciences have increasingly incorporated chemistry, physics, computer science, and mathematics to aid in the development and use of mathematical models. Such combined approaches have been used to address problems from protein structure-function relationships to the workings of complex biological systems.…

The laboratory setting is an exciting and gratifying place to teach because you can actively engage the students in the learning process through hands-on activities; it is a dynamic environment amenable to collaborative work, critical thinking, problem-solving and discovery. The guided inquiry-based approach described here guides the students…

A simple algorithm was implemented in a spreadsheet program to simulate the circular dichroism spectra of proteins from their secondary structure content and to fit [alpha]-helix, [beta]-sheet, and random coil contents from experimental far-UV circular dichroism spectra. The physical basis of the method is briefly reviewed within the context of…

This article features websites related to biochemistry and molecular biology education. They include: (1) Scitable (www.nature.com/scitable); (2) Educause (www.educause.edu); (3) The Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2729); (4) European Conference on eLearning…

In proteomics, complex mixtures of proteins are separated (usually by chromatography or electrophoresis) and identified by mass spectrometry. We have created 2DE Tandem MS, a computer program designed for use in the biochemistry, proteomics, or bioinformatics classroom. It contains two simulations--2D electrophoresis and tandem mass spectrometry.…