A Medical School Faculty Member’s Relationship with BEN

Marguerite W. Coomes, Ph.D.Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Howard University College of MedicineWashington DC

Who am I, and what am I doing here?

I am an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC.

My “day job” is to coordinate “Molecules and Cells”for the medical students, and General Biochemistryfor graduate students. I also teach in advanced courses for biochemistry graduate students.

And I have been involved with the GRE and MCAT exams

Howard University offers many different programs---I have also taught dental and pharmacy students.

Because my research area involves environmentalissues, I have been part of initiatives to introduce a degree in environmental sciences, and an M.P.H.at Howard.

Howard has many outreach programs, and I have participated in programs for high school students, high school teachers, and pre-meds.

I have a Batchelor’s degree in biological sciences (I even taught botany at one point,) so I have had apretty broad exposure to all kinds of teaching.

And now I am involved with BEN

biosciednet.org

The driving force behind digital libraries in thebiological sciences has been the professional society:

•American Physiological Society

•American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

• Many others

BEN, the digital portal to the collections of the various professional societies, is maintained byyet another scientific society, the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science.

Many of those involved in creating and maintaining these libraries are, or have been, teachers, but some have not.

Some of the software experts are not scientists.

To help enrich this mix of people, I was asked by AAAS to join the efforts to create BEN, and share my experienceas an active faculty member.

I spent three days a week at AAAS in Washingtonin the Spring of 2002 to

• Learn what BEN was

• Learn something about the software involved in “harvesting” the material from the individual societies • Find out what metadata is (and explain the need to use this term with the users of BEN only after defining the word)

To an epidemiologist meta means ……?

To a chemist meta means…..?

I also met the wonderful people involved with some of the societies, AAAS, and e-guana, who are the software experts.

This personal relationship really helps when I am asked to do something for BEN

How have I contributed to the development of BEN?

This is going to sound as if I have donefar more than I actually have.

Mostly I have been having fun, because all the people I have worked with know so much about digital libraries, and they all are very enthusiastic.

And I have found so much interesting material to shareWith my students and colleagues.

How have I contributed to the development of BEN?

When the original concept was presented toNSF by AAAS the target audience wasthe undergraduate.

I encouraged a broadening of the target audience.

The BEN portal was to complementScience NetLinks. This provides materials aimed at K-12

I have taught students from high school who are dealingwith scientific material that is as advanced as that whichwe teach to graduate and medical students. Both audiencescould potentially use the same material.

Now the BEN mission has beenredefined to include a widerrange of students, includinggraduate and professional students.

I have learned to review metadata, and have encouraged more flexibility in metadata categories.

For instance, a biochemist would expectmolecular biology to be included in thesearch term “Biochemistry”

Sometimes it appearsonly under “Molecular Biology”or even “Microbiology”

So there need to be search terms that are likely to be pickedby people in various disciplines who are looking for thesame thing, but using the vocabulary of their specialty.

I also pointed out that “biosciences” is a morecomprehensive term than “biologist.” Some of us do notview ourselves a biologists, but are happy to be consideredunder the more general term “bioscientist”.

It is important for the site to be a “big tent” for everyone who can benefit.

Even though I am not physically at AAAS now, I am still a metadata validator.

As items are added to the collection, I receive those in myareas of specialty to review and validate the metadata.

I helped develop the tasks that were assigned tothe Beta testers.

Many of these tasks came from my own experiences.

I also “volunteered” a number of mycolleagues to be Beta testers!

For example, there was a task on finding simpleand inexpensive experiments that could be donein a laboratory course at a school with alimited budget.

I spent time searching the Web for existing resources, and have shared this list with BioMoleculesAlive (ASBMB)

If they wish they could invite the authors of these materials to submit to the ASBMB library.

I am ever mindful of copyright problems…

I have an eye for “stolen material”

One of the troubling copyright issues involves chemical figures.

One may use the word “glucose” without copyright problems, but it is (probably) not allowed to copy a chemicalstructure of glucose.

The structure must be redrawn each time. This is very time-consuming.

AAAS purchased for me a chemical structure drawingprogram, and I am preparing a set of biochemicalstructures to be put on the Web without copyright.

This is a work still underway.

NOT GLUCOSE

Here is an example of my original work versus the use ofa figure from the text.

Asparagine cannot be made from free ammonia. Instead, the amide group is made by transferring the amide from glutamine to aspartate

COOH CH2

CH2

HCNH3+

C=ONH2

COOH CH2

HCNH3+

C=OOH

Glutamine Aspartate

Before the amide group can be transferred the carboxyl group of aspartate must be activated by ATP

Asparagine cannot be made from free ammonia. Instead, the amide group is made by transferring the amide from glutamine to aspartate

COOH CH2

CH2

HCNH3+

C=O

COOH CH2

HCNH3+

C=O

NH2

OH

glutamine aspartate

Please note: This slide is not meant to show the chemical mechanism of this reaction.

glutamate

asparagine

glutamine + aspartate glutamate + asparagineATP AMP + PPi

AsparagineSynthetase

I have had the luxury of time and facilities to develop some teaching material that uses some of the latestPowerPoint capabilities…

I wish to apologize to all computer whizzes presentfor my amateurish teaching materials…

What goes up, must come down

Concept 11

What goes up, must come down

Concept 11

Clotting process initiated

What happens if clotting continues?

What goes up, must come down

Concept 11

Destroy clotting factors and dissolve clot

clotting factors

Are we done now?

No, we need to prepare for the next slip of the knife

Synthesizemore

If you can’t get it there it won’t have an effect

Concept 8

For example:

ATP

Adeninea buildingblock of adenine Adenine can

be converted to ATP in the cell

This concept works for therapeutic drugs, vitamins, andother molecules. For instance

pyridostigmine

I have represented BEN at professional meetings, talked to other scientists, and distributed materials.

Often (and I think this is a pity) people with a Ph.D. listen with more respect to someone else with a Ph.D.

So, I have loaned my Ph.D.and my experience as a facultymember and bioscientistto the BEN project!

. One of my most gratifying assignments was to attend the meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators last year in Guadalajara, Mexico.It was wonderful to speak to people from countries without our financial resources, and be able to tell themabout BEN, and to tell them it is available to them withoutcharge.

I have pushed very hard to promote publication creditfor contributing to digital libraries.

It is still true that “Publish or Perish” is the doctrine of the day. Teaching is the Rodney Dangerfield of activitiesat too many institutions.

Developing Web-based teaching material is time-consumingand requires a lot of imagination. It should be rewarded.

I also was lucky enough to attend the ASM Undergraduate Teaching Conference in Salt Lake City on behalf of the BEN project. This conference is organized by one of our BEN partners.

It was a wonderful and rewarding experience, and I recommended that representatives of other BEN partners be funded to attend this year, to see all the innovative ideasthat are presented and discussed.

And several of our partners were indeed at the conferencethis year, funded through BEN.

And last (for now) but not least I am here at the Merlot Conference to help explain BEN, and to convey myenthusiasm for BEN as a tool for current faculty members to enhance their teaching.