Abstract

• Advances in modern medicine is largely dependent on our progresses made in understanding diseases and drugs at the molecular scale.
• However, most students or even doctors do not have a clear picture or understanding on the drugs and their protein targets, except as difficult-to-remember alphabetical soups and obstacles to pass their exams.
• We aim to assemble a team of enthusiastic medical students after micro-module to download and 3D print protein models.
• The models can be distributed to the students for a concrete understanding of how a change in protein (due to mutation in genes) would cause disease, or how drugs treat them by binding to their target proteins.
• The models will be referred to during lecture-based teaching for better explanation of the abstract molecular world.
• As souvenirs, the models can be kept by all students for revision or future explanation to patients and society.
• We hope the programme would empower students to think more in the molecular contexts and deepen their understanding of how diseases come about and how drugs work, rather than just randomly memorizing names with stress.
• In the future, when 3D printing as well as online learning is becoming more commonplace, students may print the proteins at home directed by lecturers to enhance their learning.
• Our trial also provides experiences in how to better disseminate knowledge physically via the internet in our increasingly virtualized world.