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BCH210H Assignment
BCH210H Fall 2023 Assignment – 20% of final grade
Chaos at the membrane: protein dysregulation and cancer
As you are learning about the importance of proteins throughout the course, complete
the following assignment and submit a draft electronically on Quercus. Your draft will be
graded, and a TA will provide you with feedback so that you may elaborate on the various
sections and submit a final written assignment by the end of the course.
The purpose of this assignment is to gain experience researching a topic and
communicating your understanding about protein structure and function, including how
they are categorized and interact with different molecules in the body. You will also work
with a variety of computational tools and technologies to access information and
understand a protein at the molecular level. These tools allow biochemists to
demonstrate how a protein works in the cell based on its structure and the interactions
that occur. This assignment is designed to take you through some of the tools that compile
what is known about a protein and be used to analyze a protein’s structure and/or
function based on the amino acids present.
You are expected to complete this assignment independently and are responsible for
maintaining academic integrity in this course. You must reference any primary sources
of information using CSE format (Author Year) and properly paraphrase any ideas that are
not your own original work. Please see the BCH210H Lib guide also posted on Quercus for
a refresher on how to paraphrase ideas and cite your references using CSE format. Provide
an alphabetized list of references at the end of your draft. You may also wish to consult
the writing centre or resources at your college for help if you haven’t written an
assignment at U of T before. All submissions will be screened using the University of
Toronto plagiarism detection tool and any questionable behaviour will be investigated.
Furthermore, the knowing use of generative artificial intelligence tools, include ChatGPT
and other AI writing and coding assistants, for the completion of, or to support the
completion of this assignment, may be considered an academic offence. This course is
designed to promote your learning and intellectual development, and representing an
idea that was AI-generated as one’s own idea does not help you achieve the course
learning objectives.
Please read through the complete instructions before starting the assignment and
speak with Dr. Bathurst during office hours if you have any questions.
BCH210H Fall 2023 Draft Assignment
2
Draft Final
Introduction See instructions below. Use feedback received from draft to
improve your introduction.
Add any more details based on what
you’ve learned later in the course.
Target Protein Structure See instructions below. Use feedback received from draft to
improve this section.
Using what you learn in week 5, elaborate
on your membrane protein’s structure and
function.
Add hydropathy plot figures and
discussion.
Protein Purification and
Characterization
See instructions below.
Write this section as a
table.
Bullet points or full
sentences are fine. But
make sure to include all
details.
Use feedback received from draft to
improve this section.
Write this section in paragraph form.
Ligand Binding Site and
Signaling
See instructions below. Use feedback received from draft to
improve this section.
Elaborate on growth factor interaction
with target protein, including adding a
figure and discussion of amino acid
interactions.
Using what you learn in week 6, discuss
the downstream signaling cascade
resulting from the growth factor binding
its receptor, as well as mechanisms of
hyperactive receptor signaling in cancer.
BCH210H Fall 2023 Draft Assignment
3
Assignment Requirements:
Signaling molecules like hormones or growth factors bind to their receptors, often located
in the cell membrane, to elicit a response in the cell. But what happens when this signaling
goes awry? Dysregulation of membrane proteins is a key hallmark of cancer. Receptors
are often overexpressed and/or hyperactive in cancer cells, leading to continuous
activation of downstream signaling pathways that result in uncontrolled growth,
proliferation, and other events that promote tumour growth. Understanding the
structure and function of these signalling molecules and their receptor proteins is
essential in order to understand how they can drive tumour growth, as well as to design
drugs that can target and bind the receptors to inhibit signaling.
For this assignment you have the choice to research one of two different growth factors:
epidermal growth factor (EGF) or vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A). Note that
there are different VEGF proteins in the VEGF-family (PGF, VEGF-B, VEGF-C, VEGF-D). This
assignment will specifically use VEGF-A.
Include the following information in your draft using separate section headings and refer
to the rubric on Quercus for how each section will be evaluated. You will need to consult
the literature to address each topic using full sentences. For the final assignment, there is
a maximum of 1 page of text for each of the 5 sections, for a total of ~2000 words.
Therefore, keep the final word count in mind when writing your draft. You’ll need to be
concise, provide the necessary details and avoid irrelevant information. Images, their
associated figure titles and captions, and the reference list are not included in the page
and word limit. Please use 12-point font, single spaced, margins no smaller than 1.5 cm,
and submit your document in a pdf format. Do not include a title page.
Feedback on the draft will be provided in time for the final submission later in the course.
However, all the information you need to complete the final assignment is provided in
the first 6 weeks of the course, therefore you can begin working on the final assignment
immediately.
The final written assignment will be awarded style marks for your writing, so make sure
you leave time to edit your assignment and review it for any grammatical errors. If you
have not yet submitted a written piece of work at U of T, you may want to consider
reaching out to the Writing Centre or your college for assistance prior to the due date.
Draft Submission Details: Save your file as Name.Draft.BCH210H.Fall.2023.pdf (where
‘Name’ is your lastname.firstname). Upload and submit your assignment as a pdf to
Quercus at the latest by Tuesday October 10, 2023, at 5PM ET.
MAKE SURE YOU SUBMIT YOUR ASSIGNMENT AT LEAST 30 MINUTES BEFORE IT IS DUE
AS ASSIGNMENTS THAT ARE SUBMITTED EVEN 1 MINUTE LATE WILL BE MARKED LATE
AND PENALIZED. Late submissions will be penalized -10%/day.