I love TQTs!

 

 

 

 

Primary literature

How can we make the primary research literature more accessible to naive readers such as undergraduate students?

Various strategies have been proposed and tested. My favorites include C.R.E.A.T.E., Figure Facts, and Science in the Classroom.

Central to my own approach is the creation of detailed study guides designed with confused students in mind. Links to some of these study guides (and the papers on which they are based) can be found below and on the BIOL 485 web page.

• C.M. Armstrong and D.E. Goldberg (2007), "An FKBP destabilization domain modulates protein levels in Plasmodium falciparum," Nature Methods 4: 1007-1009. PubMed ID #17994030; study guide.

• C. Aslanidis & P.J. de Jong (1990), "Ligation-independent cloning of PCR products (LIC-PCR)," Nucleic Acids Research 18: 6069-6074. PubMed ID #2235490; study guide.

• J. Baldwin et al. (2005), "High-throughput screening for potent and selective inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase," Journal of Biological Chemistry 280: 21847-21853. PubMed ID #15795226; study guide.

• M.W. Baldwin et al. (2014), "Evolution of sweet taste perception in hummingbirds by transformation of the ancestral umami receptor," Science 345: 929-933. PubMed ID #25146290; homework; worksheet.

• M.L. Baniecki et al. (2007), "High-throughput Plasmodium falciparum growth assay for malaria drug discovery," Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 51: 716-723. PubMed ID #17116676; homework.

• F.S. Buckner and J.A. Urbina (2012), "Recent developments in sterol 14-demethylase inhibitors for Chagas disease," International Journal for Parasitology: Drugs and Drug Resistance 2: 236-242. PubMed ID #23277882; study guide.

• L.A. Castle et al. (2004), "Discovery and directed evolution of a glyphosate tolerance gene," Science 304: 1151-1154. PubMed ID #15155947; study guide.

• G.J. Crowther et al. (2009), "Buffer optimization of thermal melt assays of Plasmodium proteins for detection of small-molecule ligands," Journal of Biomolecular Screening 14: 700-707. PubMed ID #19470714; study guide.

• M.B. Elowitz and S. Leibler (2000), "A synthetic oscillatory network of transcriptional regulators," Nature 403: 335-338. PubMed ID #10659856; study guide.

• I. Faik et al. (2009), "Parasite-host interaction in malaria: genetic clues and copy number variation," Genome Medicine 1: 82. PubMed ID #19725943; study guide.

• D.A. Fidock et al. (2000), "Mutations in the P. falciparum digestive vacuole transmembrane protein PfCRT and evidence for their role in chloroquine resistance," Molecular Cell 6: 861-871. PubMed ID #11090624; homework; discussion questions.

• E.C. Friesema et al. (2004), "Association between mutations in a thyroid hormone transporter and severe X-linked psychomotor retardation," Lancet 364: 1435-1437. PubMed ID #15488219; homework; worksheet.

• W. Gilbert and B. Muller-Hill (1967), "The lac operator is DNA," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 58: 2415-2421. PubMed ID #4873589; study guide.

• S.H. Grossman (1976), "A note on the dual role of glucose in the protection of glucokinase against inactivation," Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 452: 392-397. PubMed ID #1009116; study guide.

• R. Gujjar et al. (2009), "Identification of a metabolically stable triazolopyrimidine-based dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitor with antimalarial activity in mice," Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 52: 1864-1872. PubMed ID #19296651; study guide.

• H. Hasuwa et al. (2013), "miR-200b and miR-429 function in mouse ovulation and are essential for female fertility," Science 341: 71-73. PubMed ID #23765281; study guide.

• V.M. Ingram (1957), "Gene mutations in haemoglobin: the chemical difference between normal and sickle-cell haemoglobin," Nature 180: 326-328. PubMed ID #13464827; study guide.

• E.R. Kandel (1981), "Calcium and the control of synaptic strength by learning," Nature 293: 697-700. PubMed ID #7290207; study guide.

• J.X. Kelly et al. (2009), "Discovery of dual function acridones as a new antimalarial chemotype," Nature 459: 270-273. PubMed ID #19357645; study guide.

• E.T. Larson et al. (2009), "Toxoplasma gondii cathepsin L is the primary target of the invasion-inhibitory compound morpholinurea-luecyl-homophenyl-vinyl sulfone phenyl," Journal of Biological Chemistry 284: 26839-26850. PubMed ID #19596863; study guide.

• K.P. Lemon and A.D. Grossman (1998), "Localization of bacterial DNA polymerase: evidence for a factory model of replication," Science 282: 1516-1519. PubMed ID #9822387; study guide.

• S.L. Lindstedt et al. (1988), "Limitations to aerobic performance in mammals: interaction of structure and demand," International Journal of Sports Medicine 9: 210-217. PubMed ID #3410627; study guide.

• S.L. Lindstedt et al. (1994), "Does peak inspiratory flow contribute to setting VO2max?: A test of symmorphosis," Respiration Physiology 95: 109-118. PubMed ID #8153449; study guide.

• H.-R. Luscher et al. (1979), "How the size of motoneurones determines their susceptibility to discharge," Nature 282: 859-861. PubMed ID #229426; study guide.

• G.J. Lutz and L.C. Rome (1994), "Built for jumping: the design of the frog muscular system," Science 263: 370-372. PubMed ID #8278808; study guide.

• P.J. Myler et al. (2009), "The Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID)," Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets 9: 493-506. PubMed ID #19594426; study guide.

• M.A. Phillips et al. (2008), "Triazolopyrimidine-based didhydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitors with potent and selective activity against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum," Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 51: 3649-3653. PubMed ID #18522386; study guide.

• M. Rottmann et al. (2010), "Spiroindolones, a potent compound class for the treatment of malaria," Science 329: 1175-1180. PubMed ID #20813948; study guide.

• RTS,S Clinical Trials Partnership (2012), "A phase 3 trial of RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine in African infants," New England Journal of Medicine 329: 2284-2295. PubMed ID #23136909; homework; discussion questions.

• F. Sanger et al. (1977), "DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 74: 5463-5467. PubMed ID #271968; study guide.

• J.G. Swoboda et al. (2009), "Discovery of a small molecule that blocks wall teichoic acid biosynthesis in Staphylococcus aureus," ACS Chemical Biology 4: 875-883. PubMed ID #19689117; study guide.

• M. Tamborrini et al. (2009), "Design and pre-clinical profiling of a Plasmodium falciparum MSP-3 derived component for a multi-valent virosomal malaria vaccine," Malaria Journal 8: 314. PubMed ID #20042100; study guide.

• H.M. Taylor et al. (2010), "The malaria parasite cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase plays a central role in blood-stage schizogony," Eukaryotic Cell 9: 37-45. PubMed ID #19915077; study guide.

• A.S. Tenforde et al. (2013), "Identifying sex-specific risk factors for stress fractures in adolescent runners," Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 45: 1843-1851. PubMed ID #23584402; worksheet.

• D. Vallentin et al. (2016), "Inhibition protects acquired song segments during vocal learning in zebra finches," Science 351: 267-271. PubMed ID #26816377; homework; worksheet.

• M. Vedadi et al. (2006), "Chemical screening methods to identify ligands that promote protein stability, protein crystallization, and structure determination," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 15835-15840. Pub Med ID #17035505; study guide.

• X.-T. Wang and P.C. Engel (2009), "Clinical mutants of human glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase: impairment of NADP(+) binding affects both folding and stability," Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1792: 804-809. PubMed ID #19465117; study guide.