Incorporation of Bioinformatics Exercises into the Undergraduate Biochemistry Curriculum

The field of bioinformatics is developing faster than most biochemistry textbooks can adapt. Supplementing the undergraduate biochemistry curriculum with data-mining exercises is an ideal way to expose the students to the common databases and tools that take advantage of this vast repository of biochemical information. An integrated collection of exercises based on pet proteins has been assembled. The exercises described are applicable to either a lecture or laboratory format and require only basic desktop computers, an Internet connection, a current web browser, and the free Chime plug-in module. In an open-ended, inquiry-based format, the assignments ask students to explore concepts such as the relative information content of the different biopolymers, the relationship between primary sequence and tertiary structure, and how sequence conservation can be used to find an enzyme active site.