Buchanan M.F., Carter W.C., Cowgill L.M.,
Hurley D.J., Lewis S.J., MacLeod J.N., Melton T.R., Moore J.N., Pessah I.,
Roberson M., Robertson T.P., Smith M.L. & Vandenplas M.L. Using 3D
animations to teach intracellular signal transduction mechanisms: taking the
arrows out of cells. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education
2005;32(1):72-8. College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia,
Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Traditional methods of teaching
intracellular biological processes and pathways use figures or flowcharts
with the names of molecules linked with arrows. Many veterinary students,
presented with such material, simply memorize the names or chemical
structures of the molecules and are then likely to forget the material once
the examination is completed. To address this problem, the authors designed,
created, and field-tested new teaching media that incorporate realistic
three-dimensional (3D) animations depicting the dynamic changes that occur
in intracellular molecules during cellular activation. Testing found that
veterinary students taught using traditional teaching media (e.g., lectures,
handouts, textbooks) are proficient in memorizing the names and order of
intracellular molecules but unable to appreciate the interactions between
these elements or their spatial relationships within cells. In contrast,
more than 90% of veterinary students taught using 3D animations not only
recall the facts about the intracellular elements but also develop accurate
mental images of the interactions among these molecules and their spatial
relationships. These findings strongly suggest that the comprehension of
complex biological processes by veterinary students can be enhanced by the
use of dynamic 3D depictions of these processes in the classroom.
Carrington J M, Thompson MP. CAL in the
biochemical laboratory. Biochemical Education 1992;20:32-34.
Marino A, Fedriani JR. ENZEDUC 1.0: a
user-friendly software package for computation of hyperbolic enzyme kinetic data
in biochemical education. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine
1996 Mar;49(2):131-135. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,
Faculty of Sciences, University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain.
ENZEDUC 1.0 is a software package developed in Microsoft
QuickBASIC v7.1 for computation of hyperbolic enzyme kinetics. The educational
focus of the package is laboratory practical teaching. The program can manage a
maximum of 18 substrate concentration values and 72 reaction rate values for
each substrate concentration (1296 pairs of values). Samples can also be of
unequal sizes. More than one reaction rate value for each substrate
concentration can be handled. Real-time screen plots are obtained for the
Michaelis-Menten function and the most popular linear transformations. Printer
outputs are available. Hardware requirements are minimum 640 Kb RAM, EGA
graphics card and 80286 processor.
Pancrazio JJ. Ion channel events simulated
with the program SIMSTATE. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine
1995 Feb;46(2):165-174. Department of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia
Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville 22908, USA.
Ion channel transitions between conducting (open) and
non-conducting (closed) states are often described in terms of a chemical
kinetic model, where the rate constants describing the transitions between
states can be derived by analysing a data record and measuring channel dwell
times. In this paper, a menu-driven program for IBM-compatible microcomputers,
SIMSTATE, is described which permits simulations of one or more channels
according to a user-specified set of transition rates. Rates can be constant,
voltage- or ligand-activated, exhibit co-operativity, or dependent on the
calcium concentration resulting from the opening of one or more nearby Ca
channels. To illustrate the functionality of SIMSTATE, open and closed events
are simulated for a well-known Ca channel model and an example of co-operative
gating is examined. Furthermore, the control of a Ca-dependent K channel by a
nearby Ca channel, which also opens and closes according to a user-specified
transition rates, is described. Potential uses for SIMSTATE as a tool for
theoretical analysis, education and experimental design are discussed.
