Chapter 3: Protein Structure

Chapter 5: Nucleic Acids

Chapter 9: Chymotrypsin: A Serine Protease

Chapter 13: Potassium Channel

Chapter 15: SH2 Domains

Chapter 21: Glycogen Phosphorylase

Chapter 27: Site-Specific Recombination

Chapter 29: Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases

Chapter 32: Rhodopsin: A G-Protein-Coupled 7TM Receptor



What People Are Saying About the Structural Insights:

"For years, I heard students say that they just couldn't "picture something"-and that they did not find structure topics interesting, despite the fact that structure and function are so intimately linked in biochemistry. I think that these tools are useful in helping to catch students interest and to enable them to better visualize concepts and more clearly see the point of the lesson."
- Diane W. Husic, Ph.D., East Stroudsburg University

"This is a very effective learning tool. The chymotrypsin section was very clearly presented, and allows the students to see how subtle changes in one serine protease can alter its specificity. The display of results from a multi-sequence alignment program illustrates nicely what can be learned about amino acids responsible for mechanism. The Rhodopsin section was also nicely done. Being able to see how cis-trans isomerization of retinal can effect changes in distant domains (GTPase binding domain) was "illuminating." The role of mutation on modifying the spectral properties of the retinal was also useful. In both exercises, the Media Problems were not overly difficult, but sufficient to make the student pause and think just a bit.
- Robert D. Lynch, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts at Lowell