Follow-up project work

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Proteins: It’s the shape that counts!
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Proteins: It's the shape that counts!

Issues you might want to follow up:

  • what do proteins do?
  • how are proteins made?
  • what are the shapes of specific proteins?
  • what happens when something goes wrong?
  • what can you do about it if something goes wrong?

Build a model of a protein

This activity is taken from http://www.tpt.org/newtons/15/proteins.html

You will need:

  • four 25 to 30 cm cardboard tubes (from plastic wrap or aluminum foil)
  • four metre long pieces of velcro (with peel-off sticky back)
  • cotton wool balls
  • ping-pong or golf ball
  1. Make a helix by holding one of the tubes vertically and wrapping the velcro strip around the tube in a spiral pattern. Attach the cotton balls to the Velcro an inch apart from each other. Can you see how this resembles the helix structure of a protein? What do the cotton balls represent?
  2. Position four 'helices' together so that the cotton balls of one tube touch the velcro strip of another. They should be able to hold together this way.
  3. Now take the ping­pong or golf ball and try to get it into the middle of your four helices. What do you have to do to get it to fit inside? How is this similar to what a protein does to accommodate a smaller molecule? What kinds of molecules change their conformation like this to do their job?
  4. What happens if you try to join your 4-helix 'molecule' to another?

Shapes of proteins

Think about how your shape determines what you can and can't do. Then find out about protein molecules, and their shapes:

  • what are the basic components of protein molecules?
  • why are they so important?
  • how does shape determine what a particular protein does?

Find out about different proteins and use them to illustrate your answers to these questions.

What can go wrong? What can be done about it?

Find out about diseases which are caused by protein malfunction, such as:

  • cystic fibrosis
  • Alzheimer's and dementia
  • Parkinson's
  • BSE and variant CJD

How are scientists trying to cure diseases like these?

Links to other websites

General information

Shapes of proteins