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Mailing Address:
Dr. A. Clay Clark
Associate Professor
128 Polk Hall, CB 7622
Department of Molecular
& Structural Biochemistry
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7622
Send Email: Clay Clark
Lab: Rooms 339 & 341 Polk Hall
Office: Room 339A Polk Hall
919-515-5805 (office)
919-515-5806 (lab)
919-515-2047 (fax)
Teaching Apoptosis
Teaching non-scientists about caspase proteases and apoptosis can be challenging.
The word Apoptosis ("Ah' Puh Toe' Sis") is derived from the Greek "apo," meaning "from" and "ptosis," meaning "falling." The term is used to distinguish programmed cell death from the more traumatic cell death of necrosis. In 1972, Wyllie and colleagues coined this term from the use of this word in an ancient Greek poem to mean "falling off" and its connotations of leaves falling from a tree (British Journal of Cancer 26, 239-257). For more information on apoptosis, see the Apoptosis Page in Wikipedia.
Undergraduate students in an honors seminar course (ALS398H) at NC State University took on this challenge and generated documents aimed at teaching students of various ages about cell death and the correlation with several human diseases.
1. Teaching Cell Death to Elementary School Students
The materials in this section begin with a powerpoint
presentation that provides an overview of apoptosis. Then, students
learn about apoptosis through the story of Mitus the Mitochondria. This
fun coloring book (click on the image to the right) follows Mitus through
the mechanisms of apoptosis as the cell reacts to stress. Meet Mitus'
friends as they initiate a cascade of events that lead to cell death.
The coloring book lists several vocabulary words, a fun experiment, and
several discussion questions.
2. Teaching Cell Death to Middle School Students
The materials in this section begin with a powerpoint
presentation that provides an overview of apoptosis, then describes
cell death in Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer's diseases. Several worksheets
are included in the presentation or are available as a single
file.
3. Teaching Cell Death to High School Students
The materials in this section begin with a powerpoint presentation that provides an overview of apoptosis, then describes cell death in cardiovascular diseases. A worksheet is included that summarizes the material. The lecture ends with several videos that include dramatic recreations of cellular events during apoptosis.
The first video shows the effects of Oxidative Stress on the cell and
release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria.
The second video shows the formation of the apoptosome and activation
of caspase-9.
The third video shows the activation of the executioner caspase-3 by caspase-9.
The fourth video shows the destruction of the cell by the executioner
caspase-3.
The fifth video shows the clearance of the apoptotic bodies by macrophages.
The final video shows all of the segments in one video.