Membranes, Ions, and Signals: An Integrated, Multimedia, Biophysics Module for First-Year Medical Students

Abstract

First-year medical students, unlike typical graduate students, include many non-science majors with varying prior exposure to mathematics or physical sciences. To provide a common substrate for medical education that acknowledged these disparate backgrounds, an introductory Molecules to Cells course was designed in 1996 by D.G., O.S.A., and colleagues. Now Molecules, Genes, and Cells (MGC), this spans protein structure, lipids, cellular genetics, metabolic biochemistry, cell division, and more. We now report design and implementation of a Membranes, Ions, and Signals (MIS) module for MGC, covering cellular biophysics, physiology, and pharmacology. Building on membrane lipid structure and function, MIS incorporates: • plasma membrane and compartments • properties of those compartments important to electrochemistry, signaling, and biophysics, • structure and function of membrane channels, transporters and receptors • electrophysiology of excitable tissue • signals and information: synaptic, cellular, cytoplasmic, and nuclear • signals in disease contexts • signals into actions: structure and function of skeletal and smooth muscle This material is both essential and conceptually difficult, and MIS is designed to offer students an optimal sequence, schedule, and presentation forms and formats to aid understanding. As an integrated module, MIS relates these topics and makes them relevant to contemporary work and translational promise. Staffing is interdepartmental, via Physiology & Biophysics, Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Cardiology. MD-PhD students take the course and module in their first year, then participate as journal club instructors. A signals-and-channels computer lab incorporates material from Richardson and Richardson (1992), Brandon and Tooze (1999), and R. Bookman (U.Miami) for in-class instruction utilizing 40 workstations for ∼100 students. Introduced in Fall, 2010, student evaluation of the material and integration was highly positive; currently (Fall 2011) textual and graphic material is being delivered to students via iPad.