Molecular structure from models to mastery - a study of human insulin-degrading enzyme in the undergraduate biochemistry laboratory

Using crystal structure data, site directed mutagenesis, and real-time kinetic assays, students designed, expressed, and purified engineered mutants of human insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) to explore structural requirements for enzyme function. Students demonstrated mastery of critical concepts in enzymology including principles of experimental design, implications of enzyme structure-function relationships for molecular evolution, experimental methods for analysis of macromolecular interactions, and computational approaches to scientific inquiry. This investigation was conducted as part of the second-semester undergraduate biochemistry laboratory at Sacred Heart University