Biotechnology – Ureka Education

Externships, Projects, Tutoring in Biotechnology

Project Title

Proteins Structure and Function: The driving force behind R&D models of biotechnology industries

Learning Outcome

Proteins are the molecular workforce in all the biological systems as they perform and regulate essential functions from DNA replication to metabolic pathways. Therefore, understanding of their structure and function holds significant importance for biologists.

From this internship you would be able to:
1. Understanding the basics of protein structure and their functional forms.
2. Analyze, purify and characterize protein based on structure and function.
3. Exploration and use of various online databases containing information on proteins.
4. Hands-on exercises for characterization of a protein (your choice).

Career Impact of this Internship

This internship will provide students practical overview and hands-on experience of various tools/databases freely available which can be used for detailed protein analysis from sequence to structure to function. These skills will help students spending moretime on analysis rather experimenting on bench. Eventually this can lead to quicker and efficient experimental planning which is necessary for future careers both in academics as well as industry.
Most of the R&D in biotech/pharma industries is based on drug discovery, immunology, antibodies, proteins and peptides, enzymes and inhibitors. Thus, this project/course can be extremely beneficial for students seeking future careers in industry.

What will be covered in 8 weeks during the project

Week 1

Week 1 Protein structure – understanding protein components-amino acids, primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure, folding in to 3 – dimensional entities

Week 2

Examining the protein sequence – function, class of protein, Uniprot & InterPro tools, cellular localization

Week 3

Understanding Enzymes and Inhibitor families (Uniprot & Interpro) databases

Week 4

Protein biochemical characterization – concentration, molecular weight, isoelectric point, stability, solubility, specificity of enzymes

Week 5

Designing the strategy for purification of a specific protein – Affinity, ionexchange, size exclusion chromatography

Week 6

Biophysical characterization techniques & Introduction to protein structureanalysis – PDB and other resources

Week 7

Finding homologs, visualizing structures, comparing protein structures, effects of mutations.

Week 8

Homology modelling and structure prediction, hands-on with a protein of your choice.

Internship Format

In the virtual internship, the week would begin with live video session with the mentor / subject matter expert on the topic/s of the week. For completing the week’s tasks and assignments, the trainees will provided all the knowledge and information required, guidance on what has to be done and resources, if any. The students work (in teams) on their tasks and submit their work by the weekly deadline. They can seek any clarifications, queries, help anytime during the week if they face any difficulties.

The trainees can expect to input 40 hours of work every week.

At the end of 8 weeks, trainees will be expected to submit an internship report as the final outcome of their work.

Programme Contact Information

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