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Membrane proteins and their lipidenvironment: an example of a pedagogical strategy to promote interdisciplinaryteaching and learning in biophysicsPignataro,MF*; De Sautu, M*; Rossi, JP; Delfino, JM;Ferreira-Gomes, M and Mangialavori, IC. Departamento de Química Biológica and Instituto de Química y FisicoquímicaBiológicas ?Prof.Alejandro Paladini?, (IQUIFIB, UBA-CONICET), Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica,Universidad de Buenos Aires. irenem@qb.ffyb.uba.ar; msferreiragomes@qb.ffyb.uba.ar. *Both authors contributed equally to this work. One ofthe most important challenges in the teaching and learning processes is to beable to relate new contents with previous ones so that students can reaffirmand reshape the acquired knowledge. To work out this strategy, teachers andstudents often resort to similar prior knowledge, offering the new content asan extension or modification of what has already been incorporated (a so-called"backwards and forwards" B&F strategy). In this same line, whatcould be considered a "horizontal? H strategy refers to the connection ofthe contents among different areas of knowledge to favor a broader learning. Aclear example is the teaching of biophysics of biological membranes and enzymekinetics at undergraduate and graduate levels. The contents of both topics use,reformulate and expand the knowledge acquired previously (B&F strategy),but very rarely employ an H strategy, an instance when students can use newcontents to reformulate knowledge involving other areas.Therefore,considering the existing link among sub-disciplines in biophysics and thefundamental 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 onthe activity of the plasma membrane calcium pump (PMCA). The main goals are:(1) the development of an experimental design fit to reconstituted PMCA indifferent amphiphilic compositions and measure the enzyme activity in theseenvironments and, (2) the analysis and discussion of results within theframework of the chosen experimental design. This isan extension of a topic that we have been imparting for 10 years in the course"Methods for the study of protein conformation and interactions:MECPI" (School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry-UBA) with optimal resultstested though several surveys to the students at the end of the course. Acknowledgements. This work was supported by grants, facilities andmaterials provided by the Department of Biological Chemistry, School ofPharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires (FFyB-UBA), and by theNational Research Council (CONICET).

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