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Pepblock Builder VR – An Open-Source Tool for Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment in Interactive Protein Design

Proteins mediate and perform various fundamental functions of life. This versatility of protein function is an attribute of its 3D structure. In recent years, our understanding of protein 3D structure has been complemented with advances in computational and mathematical tools for protein modelling a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yallapragada, Venkata V. B., Xu, Tianshu, Walker, Sidney P., Tabirca, Sabin, Tangney, Mark
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8160467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34055764
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.674211
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author Yallapragada, Venkata V. B.
Xu, Tianshu
Walker, Sidney P.
Tabirca, Sabin
Tangney, Mark
author_facet Yallapragada, Venkata V. B.
Xu, Tianshu
Walker, Sidney P.
Tabirca, Sabin
Tangney, Mark
author_sort Yallapragada, Venkata V. B.
collection PubMed
description Proteins mediate and perform various fundamental functions of life. This versatility of protein function is an attribute of its 3D structure. In recent years, our understanding of protein 3D structure has been complemented with advances in computational and mathematical tools for protein modelling and protein design. 3D molecular visualisation is an essential part in every protein design and protein modelling workflow. Over the years, stand-alone and web-based molecular visualisation tools have been used to emulate three-dimensional view on computers. The advent of virtual reality provided the scope for immersive control of molecular visualisation. While these technologies have significantly improved our insights into protein modelling, designing new proteins with a defined function remains a complicated process. Current tools to design proteins lack user-interactivity and demand high computational skills. In this work, we present the Pepblock Builder VR, a gaming-based molecular visualisation tool for bio-edutainment and understanding protein design. Simulating the concepts of protein design and incorporating gaming principles into molecular visualisation promotes effective game-based learning. Unlike traditional sequence-based protein design and fragment-based stitching, the Pepblock Builder VR provides a building block style environment for complex structure building. This provides users a unique visual structure building experience. Furthermore, the inclusion of virtual reality to the Pepblock Builder VR brings immersive learning and provides users with “being there” experience in protein visualisation. The Pepblock Builder VR works both as a stand-alone and VR-based application, and with a gamified user interface, the Pepblock Builder VR aims to expand the horizons of scientific data generation to the masses.
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spelling pubmed-81604672021-05-29 Pepblock Builder VR – An Open-Source Tool for Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment in Interactive Protein Design Yallapragada, Venkata V. B. Xu, Tianshu Walker, Sidney P. Tabirca, Sabin Tangney, Mark Front Bioeng Biotechnol Bioengineering and Biotechnology Proteins mediate and perform various fundamental functions of life. This versatility of protein function is an attribute of its 3D structure. In recent years, our understanding of protein 3D structure has been complemented with advances in computational and mathematical tools for protein modelling and protein design. 3D molecular visualisation is an essential part in every protein design and protein modelling workflow. Over the years, stand-alone and web-based molecular visualisation tools have been used to emulate three-dimensional view on computers. The advent of virtual reality provided the scope for immersive control of molecular visualisation. While these technologies have significantly improved our insights into protein modelling, designing new proteins with a defined function remains a complicated process. Current tools to design proteins lack user-interactivity and demand high computational skills. In this work, we present the Pepblock Builder VR, a gaming-based molecular visualisation tool for bio-edutainment and understanding protein design. Simulating the concepts of protein design and incorporating gaming principles into molecular visualisation promotes effective game-based learning. Unlike traditional sequence-based protein design and fragment-based stitching, the Pepblock Builder VR provides a building block style environment for complex structure building. This provides users a unique visual structure building experience. Furthermore, the inclusion of virtual reality to the Pepblock Builder VR brings immersive learning and provides users with “being there” experience in protein visualisation. The Pepblock Builder VR works both as a stand-alone and VR-based application, and with a gamified user interface, the Pepblock Builder VR aims to expand the horizons of scientific data generation to the masses. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8160467/ /pubmed/34055764 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.674211 Text en Copyright © 2021 Yallapragada, Xu, Walker, Tabirca and Tangney. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Yallapragada, Venkata V. B.
Xu, Tianshu
Walker, Sidney P.
Tabirca, Sabin
Tangney, Mark
Pepblock Builder VR – An Open-Source Tool for Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment in Interactive Protein Design
title Pepblock Builder VR – An Open-Source Tool for Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment in Interactive Protein Design
title_full Pepblock Builder VR – An Open-Source Tool for Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment in Interactive Protein Design
title_fullStr Pepblock Builder VR – An Open-Source Tool for Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment in Interactive Protein Design
title_full_unstemmed Pepblock Builder VR – An Open-Source Tool for Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment in Interactive Protein Design
title_short Pepblock Builder VR – An Open-Source Tool for Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment in Interactive Protein Design
title_sort pepblock builder vr – an open-source tool for gaming-based bio-edutainment in interactive protein design
topic Bioengineering and Biotechnology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8160467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34055764
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.674211
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