Protein Data Bank Europe project

On Tuesday 6 November, thirteen students from our 6th Form College had the opportunity to visit the Human Genome Campus at Hinxton to participate in a series of workshops exploring links with the Protein Data Bank Europe at the European Bioinformatics Institute.

The project began as a collaboration between Art & Science and aims to encourage student participation with Molecular Biology, in particular the three dimensional structures of proteins used to build DNA. 

As part of this campus visit, our students took a tour of the DNA sequencing laboratories, had lunch on campus with the scientists, and heard talks from molecular biologists about their work on the protein data bank and sequencing of DNA. They were also introduced to the protein data bank and learnt how to search for proteins and model them using the 3D web-based software. 

This real life experience of science in the workplace will be fantastic for our students' CVs and university applications, as well as forging possible future contacts for work experience. For those who get involved in the project further, their artwork may also be featured in the annual calendar. 

Students will be following their experience up during enrichment projects planned for next term.

For further information about this project, and to view the artworks created by participating schools, you can visit their website.