On Tuesday, April 6th, UConn Early College Experience and UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Biology, Dr. Tom Abbott and colleagues Jean Laughman and Dr. Christopher Malinoski met with ECE Biology Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The group met to discuss future curriculum directions and pedagogy in our classrooms. Later, Dr. Abbott showed Instructors how to use computational techniques in the 3D Modeling of Proteins, and its use in the addressing of complex health problems and its possible implementation in ECE Biology classrooms.

The figure below and its description were taken from a public protein database and can be visualized and analyzed using a computer-modeling program called PyMol.

“Spike glycoprotein, a class I fusion protein harboring the surface of SARS-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2S), plays a seminal role in the viral infection starting from recognition of the host cell surface receptor, attachment to the fusion of the viral envelope with the host cells”

The morning ended with a discussion on the merits of molecular modeling skill development and its implementation in our classrooms. Dr. Abbott and Dr. Malinoski also shared a scientific animation project with the instructors.

UConn Biology courses offered through Early College Experience.