A Medical School Faculty Member’s Relationship with BEN Marguerite W. Coomes, Ph.D. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Howard University College of Medicine Washington 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 Biochemistry for 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 environmental issues, 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 a pretty broad exposure to all kinds of teaching. And now I am involved with BEN

biosciednet.org

The driving force behind digital libraries in the biological 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 by yet another scientific society, the American Association for 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 experience as an active faculty member.

I spent three days a week at AAAS in Washington in 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 done far 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 share With my students and colleagues.

How have I contributed to the development of BEN? When the original concept was presented to NSF by AAAS the target audience was the undergraduate. I encouraged a broadening of the target audience. The BEN portal was to complement Science NetLinks. This provides materials aimed at K-12

I have taught students from high school who are dealing with scientific material that is as advanced as that which we teach to graduate and medical students. Both audiences could potentially use the same material. Now the BEN mission has been redefined to include a wider range of students, including graduate and professional students.

I have learned to review metadata, and have encouraged more flexibility in metadata categories. For instance, a biochemist would expect molecular biology to be included in the search term “Biochemistry” Sometimes it appears only under “Molecular Biology” or even “Microbiology” So there need to be search terms that are likely to be picked by people in various disciplines who are looking for the same thing, but using the vocabulary of their specialty.

I also pointed out that “biosciences” is a more comprehensive term than “biologist.” Some of us do not view ourselves a biologists, but are happy to be considered under 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 my areas of specialty to review and validate the metadata.

I helped develop the tasks that were assigned to the Beta testers. Many of these tasks came from my own experiences. I also “volunteered” a number of my colleagues to be Beta testers! For example, there was a task on finding simple and inexpensive experiments that could be done in a laboratory course at a school with a limited 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 chemical structure of glucose. The structure must be redrawn each time. This is very time-consuming. AAAS purchased for me a chemical structure drawing program, and I am preparing a set of biochemical structures 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 of a 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 CH 2 HCNH 3 + C=O NH 2 COOH CH 2 HCNH 3 + C=O OH 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 CH 2 HCNH 3 + C=O COOH CH 2 HCNH 3 + C=O NH 2 OH glutamineaspartate Please note: This slide is not meant to show the chemical mechanism of this reaction. glutamate asparagine

glutamine + aspartate glutamate + asparagine ATP AMP + PPi Asparagine Synthetase

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

I wish to apologize to all computer whizzes present for 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 Synthesize more

If you can’t get it there it won’t have an effect Concept 8 For example: ATP Adenine a building block of adenine Adenine can be converted to ATP in the cell

This concept works for therapeutic drugs, vitamins, and other 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 faculty member and bioscientist to 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 them about BEN, and to tell them it is available to them without charge.

I have pushed very hard to promote publication credit for contributing to digital libraries. It is still true that “Publish or Perish” is the doctrine of the day. Teaching is the Rodney Dangerfield of activities at too many institutions. Developing Web-based teaching material is time-consuming and 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 ideas that are presented and discussed. And several of our partners were indeed at the conference this 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 my enthusiasm for BEN as a tool for current faculty members to enhance their teaching.