Malate Dehydrogenase CUREs Community: A Model for the Development and Sustainability of a Protein Centric CURE Combining Pedagogical and Protein Science Research

Abstract

The MDH CUREs Community (MCC) was launched in 2017 with the help of an NSF IUSE grant (NSF-1726932) with 15 faculty from 12 diverse institutions including Community Colleges, MSIs, PUIs, Comprehensive and Research intensive institutions. As of January 2021 the community has grown to 29 faculty from 25 institutions, with proportional increase of all types of institutions. Faculty surveys and interviews conducted by an external evaluation team attribute this growth to 1) a combination of developed and available biological resources that have broadened the range of scientific questions that can be addressed in CUREs. Clones and expression systems were created for various classes of malate dehydrogenase (human, plant, yeast, extremophile and several disease causing pathogens such as Plasmodium falciparum). In addition constructs for several “metabolon” forming enzymes were created. These constructs allow CURE classes to be organized around a diverse array of scientific questions ranging from evolution and adaptation, to classic structure function relationships, to regulation (including post translational effects) and potential drug design. In addition several of the constructs have been developed for intracellular interaction work. 2) the sense of community and collegiality in the group, 3) developed written resources including protocols and teaching aids such as syllabi, background reviews and materials focusing on the seven common elements of MCC CUREs (Relevance, Scientific Background, Hypothesis Development, Proposal, Experiments/Teamwork to test hypothesis, Data Analysis and Conclusions, and Presentation) and 4) an annual meeting (either in person or virtual) of the group to discuss teaching approaches and plan upcoming CURE courses as well as evaluate the yearly external report and suggestions. The community investigated two pedagogical questions during the three year period, assessing the impact of CURE length, and CURE Collaboration on student outcomes. CURE length compared modular CUREs (6-7 weeks) with full semester CUREs using equivalent non CURE courses as controls. A series of validated assessments were administered pre- and post course and aggregated over the three year period. While both types of CUREs showed student gains, full semester CUREs outperformed modular CUREs in many criteria. The impact of Collaboration on student outcomes was more dramatic. Collaboration was defined as either, or, or a combination of, inter-institutional collaborations involving faculty and students from different institutions or student interactions from different institutions. While collaboration resulted in favorable outcomes in all institution types the impact was particularly noticeable in Community College student outcomes. Of the seven common elements of MCC CUREs, faculty discussion identified student hypothesis development as a key player in developing both student ownership of the projects and favorable long term outcomes. Finally, MCC CURE projects have generated significant new scientific knowledge on structure function relationships in MDHs and led to numerous presentations by students and are currently the focus of three manuscripts in preparation with multiple student authors.