Enzyme-substrate interactions are a concept that spans various topics in biochemistry and molecular biology (e.g. kinetics, metabolism, and translation) and there are a vast amount of representations used to teach this concept that lack common conventions. A sequential mixed methods design was used to conduct student interviews using multiple representations to elicit students’ understandings of enzyme-substrate interactions, followed by the development of the Enzyme-Substrate Interactions Concept Inventory (ESICI). The ESICI was subsequently administered to 707 students at 16 institutions from across the United States. Students’ were found to have a range of prior knowledge that they used to interpret the representations. The ESICI further provided evidence of misconceptions, the most significant being students’ sole focus on electronic complementarity and students’ lack of energetic understanding of enzyme-substrate interactions. Additional manuscripts have been published in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, Chemistry Education Research and Practice , and the Journal of College Science Teaching.

In collaboration with the Crowder, Lorigan, and Tierney groups, an experiment for  an integrated upper-level laboratory was deveoped to integrate concepts from inorganic, biological, and physical chemistry content areas. Students investigate the effects of ligand strength on the spectroscopic properties of the heme center in myoglobin using UV-vis, 1H NMR, and EPR spectroscopies. This upper-level undergraduate laboratory is set in the context of understanding why meat is packaged under an atmosphere of CO and can be completed in two, 3-4 hour laboratory periods. A manuscript describing this experiment was published in the Journal of Chemical Education.