Research need inspires student opportunity
When on-campus labs were effectively shuttered in early 2020, scientists scrambled to find ways to continue their work.
Biochemists and molecular biologists, in particular, struggled without the use of their wet labs, and they began reaching out in increasing numbers to researchers like Denise Okafor—also a molecular biologist, but one adept at studying molecular structures and their function via computer-generated, or in silico, models.
“When you realize that you can no longer go into the lab, then you need something else to do, and the computational research becomes really valuable,” said Okafor, Huck Early Career Chair in Biophysics and assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and of chemistry at Penn State. “I was getting emails from people everywhere wanting to collaborate and learn how to do modeling and simulations.”
When in-person research finally resumed at the University, that experience stuck with Okafor, and she decided to apply for funding to create a new course for undergraduates to help them develop the type of computational skills that were now clearly in demand at an unprecedented level.
“I remember thinking—this is such a useful skill that a lot of people don't have, and at Penn State, there's no version of it that's in the curriculum,” she said. “But how nice would it be if students could learn how to do these things, like a class where they could learn all these practical techniques and that allowed them to do research remotely, in front of a computer, and complete a whole research project?”
In August 2024, Okafor was granted funding through a Teaching Innovation Award from the Cada R. and Susan Wynn Grove Center for Excellence in Science Education, and she began developing a course-based research experience for undergraduates (CURE), to teach them how to do just that—starting by creating molecular models of biomolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, to study their function.
“It could just be a regular course,” she said, “but the CURE component makes sense because it goes a step further: This skill is a research tool, so why not demonstrate its use as a research tool? Then the students have the ability to not just learn the things but actually do a project. It’s a good way to give them research experience.”
As well as computational modeling, Okafor’s research expertise is in proteins known as nuclear receptors, which are often targeted for drug development. Her new course, which she said she hopes to launch in spring 2026, will likely be targeted toward upper-level undergraduates—a group that can have a hard time gaining research experience if they haven’t previously worked in a lab.
“Every semester, there’s a handful of third- or fourth-year students who ask me if I know of labs where they can do research; and most labs are not going to take them, because they like to have more longevity,” she said. “But if this class could be targeted toward that group, it could be an opportunity for them to get some research experience, and there might even be a publication from it.
“The National Science Foundation reports that quantitative skills are becoming more desirable for jobs in the biomedical sciences, and that just makes sense with the way that the world is moving—that those skills, and generally more computer savviness, are increasingly desirable in the workforce. So this is one way for undergrads to potentially expand their horizons for what they might want to do in the future.”