Student Resources
Onsite Exam Preparation
On the day of the event, teams will complete a multiple-choice and short-answer written exam worth 60% of the team's total score. The exam will include questions related to general protein structure and this year’s protein theme. Teams will explore a new protein structure using the JUDE (the Jmol User Design Environment) and answer multiple choice questions related to the new protein structure.
The links and resources below will provide additional background on amino acids, protein structure and protein function. The difficulty of the onsite exams will increase at each level of the Science Olympiad Event. Students do not need to study every link in depth; instead, use these as reference points to support the concepts described in the event rules.
LibreTexts - Biochemistry Free For All (Ahern, Rajagopal, Tan)
- Amino Acids and Sidechain Properties - Explains how amino acid side chains differ (hydrophobic, polar, charged, aromatic, etc.) and how those differences affect protein structure and function.
- Biochemistry Bookshelf - A collection of full biochemistry textbooks. Use this as a reference when you want more detail on specific protein topics (e.g., folding, enzymes) rather than reading it cover-to-cover.
AK Lectures - Protein Biochemistry Videos
- Introduction to Proteins - This video walks through amino acid properties, protein structure levels, and noncovalent interactions in more detail, with diagrams and worked explanations.
- Protein Structure and Function Playlist - These additional videos explore additional protein structure and function concepts, including peptide bond formation, enzyme activity and mutations.
EMBL-EBI - Foundations of Protein STructure
- Peptide Bond and Primary Structure – Overview of how peptide bonds link amino acids, why the backbone is partially rigid, and how that affects possible conformations.
- Protein Folding Problem, Anfinsen's Dogma and Levinthal's Paradox - Introductory discussion of why protein folding is challenging, what Anfinsen’s experiments showed, and what Levinthal’s paradox means.
Enzymes, Kinetics and Quantitative Ideas
- Michaelis-Menten Kinetics – Explains the classical equation, parameters, and basic rate-substrate plots.
RCSB PDB101
- Methods for Determining Protein Structures – Introduces X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and NMR, explaining what each method measures and what kind of data it produces.