PRIOR BASIL WEEK EVENTS

BASIL Week 2025 Sessions

Monday, June 9 (all times ET)
12:00-2:00 pm EDT: Student assessment strategies

Assessment of research skills is not easy. This workshop is designed to empower STEM faculty members with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively evaluate student learning outcomes in CUREs. Participants will work on learning objectives and goals for their BASIL students. Assessment examples will be shared and time set aside to develop course assessments.

2:30-4:30 pm EDT: Selecting a protein structure

This workshop will explore ways to use the Protein Data Bank and AlphaFold databases to select proteins with no experimental data or annotated function. These proteins can serve as the basis of the BASIL modules to predict protein function. 

Tuesday, June 10
12:00-2:00 pm EDT: Structure alignment with SPRITE and Foldseek

Participants will study a protein structure of unknown function using SPRITE and FoldSeek to perform 3D structure alignments. Participants will learn how to interpret the results obtained from SPRITE and use them to identify a possible active site in the protein.The strengths and weaknesses of each tool will be discussed.

2:30-4:30 pm EDT: Using CLEAN to predict function

Participants will study a protein structure of unknown function using CLEAN to predict an enzyme classification number. 

Wednesday, June 11
12:00-2:00 pm EDT: Publishing with students

There are multiple ways to publish student results when using the BASIL curriculum. Participants will learn about Proteopedia and microPublication publishing options, along with ways to empower students to create a first draft of a paper.

2:30-4:30 pm EDT: Student panel and presentations

Hear directly from the students in this interactive session. Learn from and support the accomplishments of students from acoss the country through a panel discussion followed by individual oral presentations. 

Thursday, June 12
12:00-2:00 pm EDT: BASIL wet lab tips and tricks

Participants will learn how other faculty have developed a course using the BASIL curriculum. This will include information about setting up the course schedule, how long various experiments take, and alternative protocols. Sample syllabi and schedules will be provided.

2:30-4:30 pm EDT: Creating supplemental materials for BASIL modules

Friday, June 13
12:00-2:00 pm EDT: Using SwissDock for ligand binding

Participants will use results obtained from sequence and structure alignments (workshops 1-3) to select ligands or substrates that could be used to test enzyme function. They will then use SwissDock to identify whether these bind near the proposed active site of their selected protein.

BASIL WEEK 2024 Sessions

Monday, June 24 (all times ET)
12:00-2:00 pm: Introduction to PDB, Chimera, and SPRITE
2:30-4:30 pm: Getting ready for the semester: syllabus/schedule, etc.

Tuesday, June 25
12:00-2:00 pm: Interpreting results from SPRITE, BLAST, and Interpro
2:30-4:30 pm: Student assessment strategies

Wednesday, June 26
12:00-2:00 pm: Using Dali, CLEAN, and FoldSeek to predict function
2:30-4:30 pm: Introduction to the lac operon system and protein expression

Thursday, June 27
12:00-2:00 pm: Using SwissDock for ligand binding
2:30-4:30 pm: Protein purification strategies and metal-affinity chromatography

Friday, June 28
12:00-2:00 pm: How to select a structure to study using PDB and AlphaFold
2:30-4:30 pm: Enzyme activity, kinetics, and data analysis