SBIR Phase I: Bioinformatics Tools for Biology Education

The innovation evaluates the feasibility of developing a tablet-based suite of applications that allow students to interrogate relationships between molecular sequences, molecular structures, and their biological functions. One of the most difficult concepts for students to understand is why certain mutations affect the function of a protein and others do not. Students are better able to understand this relationship when they compare molecular structures from different allelic forms of a protein, locate the mutation site, and identify structural changes that occur as a consequence of a mutation. Few students have the opportunity to carry out these kinds of investigations because they lack suitable software tools and their teachers lack both experience and relevant instructional materials. These problems will be addressed by creating a tool kit to support molecular investigations. The tool kit will be designed for tablet-based computers and will contain an application for viewing and manipulating structures, an interactive digital lab manual that supports bioinformatics investigations related to genetic disease, an instructor guide, and a data set with superimposed and annotated structures. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project relates to the potential in this suite of tools for interesting students in careers related to science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) and in increasing student understanding of the connections between genetics, proteins, and protein function. The ease of interacting with molecular objects through touch with tablet-based computers and the availability of instructional materials that guide students through the process of discovery will lower the barriers to learning about protein structure and genetics and make student-driven investigations possible for a wider group of students in both high school and college courses. The instructor guide will assist instructors in implementing these materials by describing example work-flows and providing guidance in using different types of applications to achieve learning outcomes by helping students carry out these new types of laboratory investigations. The technology developed through this project will generate business opportunities through licensing fees and by providing opportunities to develop additional molecular investigations and learning materials.