We created a novel laboratory experience where undergraduate students explore the techniques used to study protein misfolding, unfolding, and aggregation. Despite the importance of protein misfolding and aggregation diseases, protein unfolding is not typically explored in undergraduate biochemistry laboratory classes. Yeast alcohol dehydrogenase…

The study of energy metabolism is fundamental in multiple disciplines, such as biochemistry, bioengineering, biomedicine, etc. Traditionally, in high school and college level courses, students are taught energy metabolism (glycolysis, Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation) through diagrams of metabolic pathways that depict the transformation…

This review extends on previously reported findings in which students were asked to construct Reaction Coordinate Diagrams (RCDs) de novo. Instead of asking students to construct RCDs, this study explores students' understanding of kinetics and thermodynamics when provided with mechanisms for the Aldol and Claisen condensations. Data was collected…

The study and analysis of enzymatic reactions are essential for characterizing various biological systems. As part of these procedures, it is important to understand how to quantify the biological activity of these proteins in terms of enzymatic activity. This work proposes a general equation for determining enzymatic activity based on…

Biochemistry lecture and lab courses often contain enzyme kinetics as part of the curriculum, but do not regularly focus on interpreting the kinetic constants. Similarly, as we implement course-based undergraduate research experiences in our lab courses, we encourage our students to produce publication-quality images and determine the enzymatic…

This study reports an undergraduate laboratory experiment that explores the temperature-dependent kinetics of caffeine release during tea steeping by using quantitative [superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy with a water suppression pulse sequence. Designed for introductory organic chemistry laboratory courses, the experiment emphasizes the real-world…