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2017 RCSB PDB Video Challenge for High School Students

Molecular View of Diabetes Treatment and Management

2017 Video Challenge

Winners | Entries | Judges | Overview | Learning Resources


Note: Videos are intended for communication and not rigorous scientific review.

Congratulations to the 2017 Winners:


Judge's Award First Place
Insulin: From Bacteria To You

By Andrew Ma, George Song, and Anirudh Srikanth of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South in Princeton Junction, NJ
Team Advisor: Matthew Foret


Judge's Award Second Place
Metformin and DPP 4 Inhibitors Take the DIE out of Type 2 Diabetes

By Julie Chaimowitz, Fiona Lu, Lori Mohs, and Amy Ni of East Brunswick High School, East Brunswick, NJ
Team Advisor: Louise Jasko


Judge's Award Third Place
Sugary Solutions: An In Depth Look at the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

By Audrey Guo and Anna Shi of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Junction, NJ
Team Advisor: Meenakshi Bhattacharya


Viewer's Choice Award
Type 2 Diabetes: Meet It Beat It

By Kerwin Chen, Raisa Khuda, and Tasnuba Sukanna of Stuyvesant High School in New York, NY
Team Advisor: Gilbert Papagayo


2017 Challenge Details

In this video challenge, the focus is on pharmacological treatments available for type 1 and type 2 diabetes and the common side effects of these treatments. The PDB structures and resources pertaining to each subtopic are listed in the 2017 Video Challenge Featured Structures List.

Choose one from the following topics for your video:

  1. Treatment of type 1 diabetes and insulin research: Type 1 diabetes can be managed through insulin treatment that has been perfected through research since early 20th century. The earliest therapies utilized insulin from livestock, which is similar enough to human insulin that it still works when injected. Today, recombinant human insulin is most widely used. In addition, researchers are engineering new insulins with better properties to tailor treatment to the needs of patients.
  2. Treatment of type 2 diabetes: Several small hormones known as incretins (including GLP-1 and GIP) stimulate the beta cells in the pancreas to secrete insulin. These hormones are rapidly inactivated by an enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP4). To strengthen the production of insulin in type 2 diabetes patients, treatments include drugs that inhibit DPP4, or injections containing incretin analogs that can’t be inactivated by DPP4.
    Another class of drugs to treat type 2 diabetes directly reduces the amount of glucose that enters the blood stream. Glucosidase inhibitors work on a series of enzymes preventing sugars from being fully digested to a form that can be absorbed into the blood stream.
  3. Managing hypoglycemia, a common side-effects of diabetes treatments: The pharmacological treatments for both types of diabetes may cause blood glucose levels to fall to dangerously low levels. While eating or drinking something with glucose can easily treat this condition, there are times when this simple strategy can not be used. For example, if the individual is unconscious or non-responsive, a shot of glucagon may come to rescue.

2017 Video Challenge Dates

The video submission opened on March 7, 2017 and concluded on May 22, 2017. Award winners were announced at rcsb.org on June 13, 2017.


2017 Learning Resources

After you select your topic, choose at least one of the structures listed in the table below to help tell your story.

The Guide to Understanding the PDB Data is a helpful resource in understanding the protein structures better.