Membrane proteins and their lipid environment: an example of a pedagogical strategy to promote interdisciplinary teaching and learning in biophysics

PIGNATARO, MARÍA F.; DELFINO JOSE MARIA; ROSSI JUAN PABLO F. C.; MANGIALAVORI IRENE; DE SAUTU, MARILINA; FERREIRA GOMES, MARIELA

La Plata

Congreso; XLVII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Biofísica; 2018

Sociedad Argentina de Biofísica

One of the most important challenges in the teaching and learning processes is to be able to relate new contents with previous ones so that students can reaffirm and reshape the acquired knowledge. To work out this strategy, teachers and students often resort to similar prior knowledge, offering the new content as an extension or modification of what has already been incorporated (a so-called "backwards and forwards" B&F strategy). In this same line, what could beconsidered a "horizontal? H strategy refers to the connection of the contentsamong different areas of knowledge to favor a broader learning. A clear example is the teaching of biophysics of biological membranes and enzyme kinetics atundergraduate and graduate levels. The contents of both topics use, reformulateand expand the knowledge acquired previously (B&F strategy), but very rarelyemploy an H strategy, an instance when students can use new contents toreformulate knowledge involving other areas.Therefore, considering the existing link among sub-disciplines in biophysics andthe fundamental need in professional training to find relationships aiming atcreating critical and comprehensive knowledge, we propose a laboratory exercisewhere graduate students evaluate the effect of different lipid environments on the activity of the plasma membrane calcium pump (PMCA). The main goals are: (1)the development of an experimental design fit to reconstituted PMCA in differentamphiphilic compositions and measure the enzyme activity in these environmentsand, (2) the analysis and discussion of results within the framework of the chosen experimental design.This is an extension of a topic that we have been imparting for 10 years in thecourse "Methods for the study of protein conformation and interactions: MECPI"(School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry-UBA) with optimal results tested thoughseveral surveys to the students at the end of the course.AcknowldegmentsThis work was supported by grants, facilities and materials provided by the Department of BiologicalChemistry, School of Pharmacy and Bio