Editor’s
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Laura L. Kiessling University of Wisconsin, Madison BOARD OF EDITORS
Jennifer A. Doudna University of California, Berkeley
Kai Johnsson Ecole Polytechnique Fe´de´rale de Lausanne
Anna K. Mapp University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Michael A. Marletta University of California, Berkeley
Peter H. Seeberger Eidgeno¨ssische Technische Hochschule
James R. Williamson The Scripps Research Institute EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Carolyn R. Bertozzi University of California, Berkeley
Brian T. Chait Rockefeller University
Tim Clackson ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Jon C. Clardy Harvard Medical School
Benjamin F. Cravatt The Scripps Research Institute
Peter B. Dervan California Institute of Technology
Rebecca W. Heald University of California, Berkeley
Linda C. Hsieh-Wilson California Institute of Technology
Tony Hunter Salk Institute
Stephen C. Kowalczykowski University of California, Davis
Richard H. Kramer University of California, Berkeley
Thomas V. O’Halloran Northwestern University
Hiroyuki Osada RIKEN
Anna M. Pyle Yale University
Ronald T. Raines University of Wisconsin, Madison
Charles Sawyers University of California, Los Angeles
Stuart L. Schreiber Harvard University
Peter G. Schultz The Scripps Research Institute
Michael P. Sheetz Columbia University
H. Ulrich Stilz Sanofi-Aventis, Frankfurt
Christopher T. Walsh Harvard Medical School
LETTER Teaching a Chemical Biologist
T
he rising interest in interdisciplinary sciences such as chemical biology has generated a unique set of challenges for educators. How do we stimulate interest in multiple areas of science without overwhelming the students? Do we start teaching students chemical biology when they are undergraduates or wait until graduate school? Which science—chemistry or biology—should serve as the foundation for more in-depth studies in a graduate program? How do we take students with diverse scientific training and help them appreciate both the chemistry and the biology of cellular processes? Institutions around the world have met these challenges by adding new courses, revamping existing ones, or completely changing their undergraduate and graduate curricula. Starting in this issue of ACS Chemical Biology and continuing next month, we place chemical biology education In Focus in a series of commentaries from scientists who are successfully changing how we train the next generation of students. We expect that these articles will provide insight, guidance, and fresh ideas for other educators who are developing chemical biology courses or programs at their institutions. We begin our In Focus series with a commentary on the Chemical Biology for Sophomores! lecture course and lab. This course, funded by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors Award to Alanna Schepartz (Yale University), began in 2004. Joshua Kritzer, who helped teach the course with Schepartz, notes that “training the next generation of chemical biologists thus requires an undergraduate education that values a wide exposure to a variety of interrelated fields, from cancer evolution to robotics, from immunology to image analysis.” To do this, the Yale course relies heavily on inquiry-based instruction, a teaching technique in which students construct their own knowledge by solving problems in an openended, self-directed manner rather than through a prescribed set of exercises for which the outcome is known. The Yale lecture course and lab use many inquiry-based techniques, such as conducting in-class discussions on specific research papers and having each student write a review on a topic of interest to him or her. Kritzer notes in his commentary (p 411) that integrating inquiry-based techniques in the lecture course and lab allows the professor to teach the fundamental concepts in chemistry and biology that the students can use to explore the innovative areas of chemical biology. The University of Dortmund in Germany, founded as an engineering school, is taking a different and bold approach to chemical biology education by restructuring its B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. curricula. These changes have transformed the traditional German Diplom in order to promote student exchange within the international community of chemical biologists. The university has capitalized on its close ties and collaborations with the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology to facilitate the integration of chemistry and biology into one set of courses. As Arndt, Niemeyer, and Waldmann discuss in their commentary (p 407), “In essence, any program like ours must make sure that true benefits are offered, both for the undergraduate and graduate students and for the faculty.” With this in mind, the Dortmund B.Sc. curriculum provides a solid foundation in chemistry that includes basic molecular and cellular biology as well as bioorganic chemistry. The M.Sc. program prepares the students for job opportunities or for continued doctoral studies by including courses with more problemsolving exercises and student presentations. Students who wish to pursue a Ph.D. can apply to the new International Max Planck Research School in Chemical Biology, whose objective 10.1021/cb600346t CCC: $33.50 Published online August 18, 2006 © 2006 by American Chemical Society
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Editor’s
LETTER is “to advance the application of chemistry to biochemistry and cellular biology on the graduate level by fostering emerging scientists from biochemistry, biophysics, and chemistry.” Arndt and colleagues also discuss how they overcame the practical and intellectual pitfalls that they faced when they redesigned the curriculum, and highlight how these extensive changes have benefited the students and faculty. These are just two examples of the wide array of innovative choices we can make to effectively teach chemical biology. Successful programs find ways to appeal to students from diverse scientific backgrounds, providing them with ample opportunity to tailor their education to their particular interests without compromising their basic understanding of chemistry and biology. The challenges are unique to each program but can be resolved with creative pedagogical changes. Successful solutions for one institution can be adapted and shaped to fit another program’s set of challenges. Next month, we will focus on other programs (the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, McGill University in Canada, Keio University in Japan, and Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan) that have revamped their graduate curricula to meet their needs. We recognize that many universities are offering a wide range of diverse undergraduate and graduate programs in chemical biology (see our WIKI for a growing list). We invite you to write an In Focus piece: describe what approaches your institution has taken to teach and engage students interested in multidisciplinary science. We also invite you to participate in our Wiki discussion on education. We look forward to publishing more pieces in this series about training the next generation of chemical biologists.
Evelyn Jabri Executive Editor
ACS Chemical Biology Strives to Serve Its Authors and Readers At ACS Chemical Biology, we continue to improve the value of our print and online journal to our authors, readers, and the entire chemical biology community. We strive to offer features and functionalities to our authors to highlight their work and share it with a broader audience. Commencing with this issue, we will introduce a new section in the print journal and offer enhanced links to related content on our website. In our ongoing efforts to promote junior members of the chemical biology community, we have developed a new section called ‘Introducing our Authors’. This new part of the journal will appear next to the ‘In this Issue’ section and will highlight the lead author of the manuscripts published in ACS Chemical Biology. We provide a brief background of the scientists and their personal perspectives and insights into what it is like to work on their projects. Our readers will now be able to put a face with a name and meet new members of the chemical biology community. We’re always looking for improved ways to alert our readers to relevant and interesting content. In addition to the notes in our Table of Contents, we now list related documents at the bottom of our web pages. We expect these links to enhance the discoverability of our content and ensure that your manuscripts are widely read and cited.
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