It sounds like a Halloween horror movie: In a lab tucked away on a corner of campus, brilliant students create mutant enzymes that alter life as we know it.
At UNLV, that scenario is close to what students do in Biol401RX: Design to Data-Enzymes. Minus the horror.
They’re not mad scientists; these students are breathing “life” into their mutant enzymes using a blend of computer algorithms and practical applied biology. But the real thrill comes when they put their creations to the test in the laboratory. It's a little like Dr. Frankenstein examining their creature to see if it behaves as expected, except in this case, it's all in the name of advancing the understanding of proteins and enzymes — thankfully, with fewer lightning storms.
The Course: Design to Data-Enzymes
In Biol401RX: Design to Data-Enzymes, students learn and apply structure prediction programs and laboratory techniques to design a mutant enzyme — a protein — with predicted abilities and then biologically characterize their mutant’s actual abilities.
Why is it being taught?
With thousands of students in the School of Life Sciences, space in the research labs is at a premium. Associate professor-in-residence Christy Strong devised this course to combine the lecture and lab and give students an authentic research experience.
“Students may have obligations outside of the curriculum with work, family, etc., so they can't allot extra time to do research. If we can provide them with a credit course, where they still have that opportunity to really have that experience, it may shift what they decide to do. It opens up possibilities they might not have realized were available to them.”
Inspired by their research experiences, Strong’s students have gone on to do internships with NASA, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Las Vegas Metro Forensics Department, and other opportunities right on campus.
Who’s taking it?
The course is an upper-level undergraduate biology class, so students must know the basics of biology before enrolling. All those semesters of studying biology pay off for these students as they apply their knowledge in this hands-on course.
Who’s teaching it?
Strong joined the faculty in 2015 and has been spearheading student research opportunities at UNLV. Originally a pre-med student, her history professor at the time encouraged her to pursue research. Over time, she has transitioned from being the mentee to becoming the mentor, guiding her students toward their own research opportunities.
She explains, “We should be building communities where you share the positive experiences that you’re excited about. When you provide people with more opportunities to explore, it enriches their life experience.”
How does it work?
This class is based around a research program that was initially started at University of California, Davis. The goal is to enhance computational protein design, enabling researchers to explore possibilities much more rapidly than in a traditional lab setting. However, there is a lack of real-life data that these models can use to base their predictions, which is where the student research comes in.
In layman’s terms, the research is teaching a computer how to predict the consequences of change when a protein component is mutated. The students in this class try each mutant test in the lab and submit their results to an internationally shared database.
By academically crowd-sourcing these protein change results, findings that would take isolated labs decades to answer can be done much more rapidly. Eventually, the computer's algorithm will be able to efficiently create never-before-seen proteins that will be used in new medical procedures as well as industrial and agricultural applications.
What’s something students might be surprised to learn?
Independence! Strong says, “I make them figure things out on their own. Students often are very scared to fail. And I tell them at the beginning class you're gonna mess up. You will make mistakes. That is part of research.”
In contrast to “cooking show”-style lab experiences in other biology courses, the outcome of this lab is dependent on the students’ performance.
“I'm teaching them how it is when you start working in a real job, or you decide to go to grad school. That higher level of responsibility teaches students, ‘This is yours. You're responsible for this.’ I want them to take ownership of this project,’” Strong says.
What even lay people should know from this course?
Most people don't realize that the everyday things we take for granted — medicine, food, and clothes — all have roots in biological research. The goal of good researchers, like the students in this Design to Data course, is to pursue science in a responsible and ethical manner to increase our knowledge and make our daily lives better.
What excites instructors the most about teaching this course?
Strong enjoys seeing the confidence of her students build over the semester. They learn to accept mistakes and communicate with each other to work toward success.
By the end of the class, Strong says, “They see themselves as a scientist, and they have ownership of this project. What's really cool is they finish this class and feel like they are part of the scientific community.”
The reading list
If you're searching for a smart read to cozy up with as the weather cools, Strong has you covered:
