A particularly difficult topic for students to understand is the continuous flow of membrane from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus and then to the plasma membrane during exocytosis. In the process of exocytosis, sections of the plasma membrane are formed into vesicles that are transported to membrane compartments, including the Golgi.

A module is being developed that gives students an interactive, 3D model of this process. Students will be able to direct the membrane flow by selecting receptors on the plasma membrane or Golgi apparatus and see the final destination for the resulting vesicle flow. The user experiences the process by "driving" through the cell. The virtual environment was developed using WorldUp on a UNIX workstation and has been ported to the PC. The Web environment will be an ActiveX plugin. Principal programmer and designer: Ademola Adekanbi.

opening view

Principal Participants:

  Page Owen: Associate Professor of Botany

  Ademola Adekanbi: Computer Science and Design

Courses where Module will be Used:

  Cell Biology (BIO205), General Biology (BIO101)