Why a Protein Synthesis Kit?
One of the fundamental processes underlying biology form and function is the mechanism living systems have evolved to manufacture proteins. This mechanism is universal and is therefore important to understand, since it is the means by which the genetic information stored in DNA is translated into proteins, the molecular machines that make life “work”. However, for most students the often-recited litany describing the flow of genetic information, “DNA makes RNA makes protein is remains an abstract world with which they have little experience. Moreover, it is usually taught using the vocabulary of chemistry, a vocabulary with which most high school students are not comfortable. Textbooks are, for the most part, not particularly helpful in explaining the process of protein synthesis since the graphics and text are at best misleading and non-instructive. The default mode is then to have the students memorize seemingly unconnected facts about a process that is “magic”. The goal of the 3D Tr
