🎓 Ages 15–18 · Grades 9–12 · Structural Biology & Biochemistry
ShapeForge
A protein’s shape follows from its sequence — which residues coil, which lie flat, which hide from water — and its shape is where its function comes from. Read a real segment, predict what it will do, then watch a deterministic engine work it out from the same chemistry the AlphaFold era automated.
Start here
What shape does it fold into? A chain folds its segments into coiling α-helices, flat β-sheets, or loops. Predict a segment’s shape from its residues, then let the engine work out its helix vs sheet propensity. What buries in the core? A folded protein hides its water-hating residues in an oily core and keeps its charged ones on the surface. Predict how many tuck in, then let the engine score each on the Kyte-Doolittle scale. One letter changed A single DNA change swaps one amino acid — and can reshape a protein. Predict what a substitution does to the surface, then compute the hydropathy jump. Sickle-cell is one such letter. Concept practice 16 kits from the amino-acid beads and the backbone to helices, sheets, the hydrophobic core, active sites, prediction confidence (pLDDT), and real structures. See it in 3-D Rotate real, precomputed protein structures (public-domain PDB data) and colour them by shape — the helices, sheets, and loops you predicted, now in three dimensions. Opt-in extra; the fold details work on any device.
Concept kits — 16 kits of structure & biochemistry
Kit 1: Amino acids as beads 25 questions Kit 2: The backbone 25 questions Kit 3: Helix or sheet 25 questions Kit 4: Secondary structure 25 questions Kit 5: Overall fold class 25 questions Kit 6: Hydrophobic core 25 questions Kit 7: Solvent accessibility 25 questions Kit 8: Membrane-spanning 25 questions Kit 9: Domains that move independently 25 questions Kit 10: Active sites 25 questions Kit 11: Lock and key (binding) 25 questions Kit 12: One letter changed (sickle cell) 25 questions Kit 13: Disorder (no fixed shape) 25 questions Kit 14: Confidence in a predicted structure (pLDDT) 25 questions Kit 15: Real structures (hemoglobin and others) 25 questions Kit 16: Capstone — predict shape to job 25 questions
Meet the cast — then teach one
- The Curator — keeps the structure library and its provenance (the mentor)
- Helix — coils into a spiral — the α-helix
- Sheet — lies flat and pleated — the β-sheet
- Hydro — hides from water — buries in the core
- Sicklewin — one letter changed → a changed shape → a disease