Hello everyone! It is almost the end of the semester, and this blog post will provide the final update with my project this semester as well as a reflection and a wrap up on what I learned overall!

I have finished the keratin surface model and printed it with FDM print using PLA filament. This essentially means that the print highlights the surface of the actual protein, but it doesn’t go too much into depth about interactions in the model. I also finished the computerized form of the ribbon model of keratin using the SLA (stereolithography) approach. This is the best approach for multi-sensorial learning as it fully depicts meaning interactions going down to elements like amino side chains. This model will eventually be printed before the semester ends, and this will wrap up the keratin segment of my CURF project.

Next, I will begin modeling fibronectin, another structural protein but one that is involved in communication between the intra and extracellular membrane. I will begin this model in the final weeks of this semester and continue the following semester and eventually present this model as well.

Additionally, this last week, I got to present a virtual poster at the Frederick Honors College Research Symposium, highlighting my CURF work so far. The link to the poster as well as the video is posted below, and this poster goes into much more depth about the semester’s progress.

Frederick Honors College Research Symposium ’24

Throughout this semester, I got to dip my toes into the molecular field of research by modeling small sections of vast proteins for the purpose of understanding their complexity. My understanding greatly improved in this field through reading primary literature, conversing with my mentor, and taking actions to make improvements each week with my models. Primary literature articles are a great resource to research a topic that is new and unfamiliar, and conversing with a mentor or another individual who is skilled in the field about the language and structure of these primary literature articles can be helpful to providing further clarity.

As I continue my journey as an undergraduate, I want to keep exploring similar topics in molecular/cellular biology and biochemistry. Understanding protein complexity through 3D modeling is a great introduction to this field, and in the future, I could build upon this understanding. Perhaps, I could go deeper and research functions of these proteins as well as study their impact in areas like drug development and other health-related aspects.

Thank you again for following along in my CURF project journey! My work accomplished this semester can be seen throughout the other 2 blog posts I created as well as in the link above that takes you to the virtual symposium website.