To perceive the biochemical foundation of life, illness and dying, a scholar should first learn the way the evanescent substances we name intermediates transfer and alter via advanced pathways and cycles. Vast quantities of scientific jargon make educating about this metabolic map a problem. When college students take a look at variations of metabolic maps on a pc display, they usually really feel misplaced in these mazes of complexity.
At Federal Medical College in Pakistan, we have now constructed a map that provides college students a big-picture view of metabolism at a look. This can assist them perceive the advanced pathways and their hyperlinks in addition to the utilized points of biochemistry.
It took me years to combine all of the intricate pathways in my thoughts. Thinking about this, I grew to become decided to make studying simpler for my very own college students. I needed to current the complexities of metabolism in a simplified format, offering them with a fowl’s-eye view so they might recognize all the system, somewhat than getting misplaced in particular person elements.
Early within the 2022 educational yr, as I used to be updating examine guides for my college students, I had the thought of creating a metabolic map on my workplace wall. To make it easy and enticing, I made a decision to keep away from chemical formulation, spotlight solely the important thing ideas and protect the important content material in a visually interesting and interactive format.
On the one hand, this map would assist imprint the advanced pathways and their hyperlinks into the minds of my college students, in order that they’d grasp it as one massive image. On the opposite hand, it will current the utilized points of biochemistry, making a thoughts shift from what college students usually consider as a “dreary biochemistry text” to a captivating biochemistry expedition.
I set to work alone however was overjoyed when an increasing number of college students joined the hassle. With 21 volunteers serving to, we accomplished the mission in a single yr. Even extra volunteers, each college students and college, helped with a celebration after the map was accomplished.
To create this masterpiece, we used plastic corrugated boards and felt sheets, foaming clay, picket alphabet blocks and quite a lot of stationery provides. Our map options blue metabolites, inexperienced coenzymes and a multicolor scheme for the enzymes. We used 3D casts to signify some elements, equivalent to yellow dots for membrane lipids and white dots for protons. Yellow-dotted membranes create mobile compartments equivalent to mitochondria and cytosol. ATP and different nucleotides are sculpted to make them stand out.
Fatahiya Kashif
Fatahiya Kashif (in white lab coat) exhibits guests the metabolic pathways map she and her college students created on the wall of her workplace on the Federal Medical College in Islamabad.
We used chemical or structural formulae just for very small molecules equivalent to water, oxygen, carbon dioxide and ammonia. Tiny space-filling fashions are mounted on the wall to point out how these miniature entities enter and exit the pathways. Arrows drawn straight on the wall with everlasting markers signify the motion of molecules throughout membranes and the conversion of substrates to merchandise.
When we have been able to share our map, we wrote a 15-minute script showcasing the potential of integrating biochemistry with pharmacology, forensic medication, group medication, pathology and molecular medication. The script is a dialogue amongst my 21 scholar volunteers who focus on the importance of metabolism.
We videotaped the script and added digital photos of sufferers and medicines. The video, “Vertical integration through a metabolic map,” was uploaded on YouTube on our channel, “Dr Fatahiya Kashif’s Students,” in late 2022 — the primary in a collection. We added a second video, “Electron Transport Chain,” in May 2023.
The faculty celebrated the map’s completion in October 2022. We gave personalized presents and souvenirs with footage of enzymes and metabolites to our volunteers and presenters.
To consider the effectiveness of our map, we solicited suggestions from our college students. Most responded positively.
Fatahiya Kashif
Fatahiya Kashif and college students on the Federal Medical College in Islamabad collect in entrance of the metabolic pathways map.
Fatima Gulbahadur, a second-year scholar, wrote to me that the map “showed everyone that this is what biochemistry does for medicine, this is how important it actually is. All the disorders, enzymes with cute little models made it all so easy to get a picture of what’s going on inside our body.”
Aimen Javed wrote that “the map gave us a very good idea about how each and every metabolic process in our body is interlinked.”
“It was a fun activity which also helped us with our curriculum and helped us step out of our comfort zone and do something interesting,” Alishba Moheeuddin wrote.
“This map made me switch my learning from ratta system (a rote method) to conceptual and integrated system,” Faiqa Shabbir wrote.
“It motivated me to put all my heart into anything I’d attempt to do,” Noor-ul-Ain Aziz wrote. “Topics that seem boring and difficult to me can be made easier if only I experiment with the ways of learning.”
Before the map was created, “there was a rare interest of most students in biochemistry,” Mujahid Mustafa wrote, “but throughout the event the interest for the subject and its importance was crystal clear.”
This editable map is a dynamic useful resource. We used UHU patafix detachable glue to mount the weather on the wall. While making the map, we saved on inserting, deleting and altering the areas of metabolites and associated bits and items till we had the very best positioning to meet the training goal. And we will preserve refining and enhancing it earlier than every studying session with new batches of scholars.
Overall, our purpose at Federal Medical College is to revisit how we train and be taught biochemistry. Better understanding is the important thing to new discoveries about novel therapies for illness prognosis, monitoring and administration. By making a dynamic useful resource that college students discover partaking and thrilling, we hope to encourage a deeper curiosity in biochemistry and its purposes.
