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Students built their models using Jmol and Mini-Toobers

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After the competitions, RCSB PDB annotators gave feedback about the models

35 teams across New Jersey expressed their knowledge about hemagglutinin and protein structure at the Science Olympiad. The RCSB PDB sponsored the protein modeling trial event at the three regional competitions. Teams were judged on their knowledge of protein structure and function based upon a protein model built before the competition, a model quickly built at the competition, and a written exam. The top scoring teams were:

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Cherry Hill High School East's Akshay Subramaniam and Tony Chen came in first place at the southern regional.

Southern Regional (January 9, Camden County College)
1. Cherry Hill High School East (80.50)
2. MATES Academy (74.80)
3. The Lawrencevile School (71.00)

Central Regional (January 12, Union County College)
1. South Brunswick (87.00)
2. Westfield (86.50)
3. Hillsborough (76.50)

Northern Regional (January 14, New Jersey Institute of Technology)
1. West Windsor Plainsboro South (96.50)
2. Livingston (89.50)
3. Princeton (79.50)

Information and resources about this event are posted at education.pdb.org and on @buildmodels.

Special thanks to our judges from the RCSB PDB (Batsal Devkota, Sutapa Ghosh, Monica Sekharan, Chengua Shao, Huangwang Yang, Christine Zardecki, Jing Zhou, and Marina Zhuravleva), the NJ Science Olympiad organizers, and to the MSOE Center for BioMolecular Modeling for the design of this event. We look forward to seeing everyone at the state finals in March!