Metabolic interrelationships software application: Interactive learning tool for intermediary metabolism

Abstract

We developed and implemented the software application titled Metabolic Interrelationships as a self-learning and -teaching tool for intermediary metabolism. It is used by undergraduate medical students in an integrated organ systems-based and disease-oriented core curriculum, which started in our medical faculty in 2001. The computer program provides an interactive environment in which students learn to integrate the major metabolic pathways as well as their hormonal control mechanisms as far as they depend on nutritional status. Students can explore the time- and tissue-dependent changes in mammalian intermediary metabolism during a feeding-fasting cycle. Starting from a whole-body view of interorgan nutrient fluxes, the student can make excursions to individual organs and, from there, to increasing levels of molecular detail and to explanatory animations. The application is well received by students and staff. © 2005 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.