Bioorganic Reaction Animations

从历史上看，对生物过程的理解已经从观察细胞水平的现象发展到确定生物聚合物（即DNA/RNA，蛋白质和多糖）的结构，再到阐明控制生命过程的特定相互作用和反应。当这些过程在分子和亚分子（即官能团）水平上被理解时，对有机分子和基团相互作用的依赖变得明显。因此，通过研究有机反应和有机小分子之间的非共价相互作用获得的信息已直接适用于对生物过程的理解。为了方便学生理解化学事件是如何决定实时过程的，基于酶晶体结构和半经验计算，多种酶过程的反应途径的三维互动动画正在开发中。该软件允许学生可视化在这些酶系统中起作用的化学事件。这个概念验证项目的目标是将生物过程中的化学事件与有机化学课程中学到的化学事件联系起来。

Historically the understanding of biological processes has progressed from observation of phenomena at the cellular level to structure determination of biopolymers (i.e. DNA/RNA, proteins and polysaccharides) to elucidation of specific interactions and reactions that govern life processes. As these processes are understood at the molecular and sub-molecular (i.e., functional group) levels, the dependence upon interactions of organic molecules and groups becomes evident. Consequently, information obtained through study of organic reactions and non-covalent interactions among small organic molecules has become directly applicable to the understanding of biological processes. To facilitate students' understanding of how chemical events dictate live processes, three-dimensional interactive animations of reaction pathways for multiple enzymatic processes are being developed based upon enzyme crystal structure and semi-empirical calculations. The software allows students to visualize the chemical events that play a role in these enzyme systems. The goal of this Proof-of-Concept project is to correlate the chemical events in biological processes with those learned in organic chemistry courses.