Bi-national and interdisciplinary course in enzyme engineering

Abstract

Higher education institutions and scientific funding agencies are emphasizing international projects that involve the integration and synergy between research groups, particularly if different disciplines are involved. Students with an education that reflects these trends will have more tools to succeed in the future, but it is challenging to provide this type of learning experience. Here we present the organization of a bi-national course with the goals to teach students protein structure/function relationships, which give them actual research experience in both computational and experimental laboratories, and engage them in an international networking experience. Two collaborative learning courses were organized at Loyola University Chicago (USA) and Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Argentina) for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Multiple instructors at different stages in their careers gave lectures during the course and were able to interact with students on a one-on-one basis. Nearly every student from both institutions thoroughly enjoyed this approach, and they learned more about protein structure and gained important tools for their own research. We believe that this type of course design is applicable and transferable to other institutions and areas of science. We found that the combination of international networking and incorporation of actual research projects ignited the enthusiasm of students and instructors. Due to the success of these courses, we planned to incorporate them as regular series in our curriculum.