Sharing computational skills to address neglected diseases in Latin America

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Chemistry and Biology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Rodrigo Ochoa who, as part of his PhD in Chemical Sciences at the University of Antioquia, Colombia, used structural bioinformatics and biophysics simulations to design peptides that can be used as potential vaccines for neglected tropical diseases.
• This resource also contains an interview with Rodrigo . If you or your students have a question for him, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. Rodrigo will reply!
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Rodrigo’s research, and tasks them to inspire younger students to explore an area of science.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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