List of participants and affiliations:
- Team Leader: Heather Patterson (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
- Resource Specialists: Gabriel Guzman (Triton College); Kari Severson (Rockford University)
- Writer: Ifrah Shahi (University of Pennsylvania/Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)
- Flex: Ferdinand Nanfack-Minkeu (College of Wooster)
The goal of this project is to help students learn how vaccinations in general function and how antigen sequence/structure affects vaccine efficacy. This project is modular, to allow instructors flexibility in choosing the length of the project and the target audience. By choosing to do only 1 module or 2-3 modules, the project can be tailored to either early-stage undergraduate students or late-stage undergraduate students.
In Part 1, students will focus on hemagglutinin subtype H1, the subtype targeted by current influenza vaccines. Students will align the amino acid sequences of H1 hemagglutinin variants to understand the concept of antigenic drift. Students will further look at the 3D protein structure of H1, and note the regions of variability how that might influence vaccine effectiveness.
In Part 2, students will compare compare H1 amino acid sequence with the H5 subtype (a subtype found in an avian influenza virus), and discuss the potential of current flu vaccines against H5.
In Part 3, students will dive deeper into the concept of antigenic drift, extrapolate on the knowledge from Parts 1 and 2 to explore amino acid sequences of several measles hemagglutinin proteins, and make the connection to why we do not require new measles vaccines periodically as we do for the flu.
- COBALT
- iCn3D
- NCBI Protein database
At the end of this course the student will be able to:
- Utilize the NCBI resources that are relevant for identifying and aligning multiple amino acid sequences, and for visualizing key amino acids on the 3D structure of a protein.
- Generate a hypothesis about the genetic basis for a seasonal vaccine against human influenza (H1N1).
- Identify important factors that must be considered when designing a vaccine against a protein antigen.
- Evaluate the potential of current flu vaccines to protect against avian Influenza (H5N1).
- Explain the reasons for requiring only a single measles vaccine in contrast to requiring yearly influenza vaccines to maintain immunity.
- Instructor Guide
- Pre-Activity Assessment Answer Key
- Student Handout Answer Key
- Post-Activity Assessment Answer Key
- Link to Collection of H1 sequences in NCBI
- Link to Collection of Measles HA sequences in NCBI
- Pre-Activity Assessment
- Student Handout
- Post-Activity Assessment
Three assessments are included in the Student Materials for this activity:
- A pre-activity assessment ensures that students understand the background information required to comprehend this activity, including a basic background on central dogma, viruses, and immune response to vaccinations.
- In the student handout which walks the student through the steps of the activity, short-answer questions are interspersed throughout to reinforce the new information they are learning.
- A post-activity assessment evaluates student understanding of the topics introduced in this activity, and allows them to apply this knowledge to novel scenarios revolving around viruses and vaccination.
Once students successfully complete this activity, the skills and knowledge can be applied to further topics such as:
- Exploring the concept of R0, and how that relates to public health and the need for vaccination.
- Exploring the idea of a universal vaccine for influenza.
More details on these topics are provided in the Instructor Guide.
This project was created as part of the BioEd Summit Curricula-thon, a week-long event focused on collaborative development of data-driven learning experiences. While we encourage you to explore and adapt this project, please be aware that NCBI does not provide ongoing support for it.
For general questions about NCBI software and tools, please visit: NCBI Contact Page