Oberholser, Karl

From Proteopedia

Karl M. Oberholser (1942-2013) was a Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg PA USA from 1976-2010, and Professor Emeritus until his death from multiple myeloma in 2013. At Messiah, he created the Molecular Science Laboratory, a series of online molecular visualization tutorials designed for students. He authored many articles in Proteopedia (complete list), and in 2010 became a member of Proteopedia's Editorial Board.

Educational Articles and Tutorials

Some particularly noteworthy articles in Proteopedia that were initially authored by Karl Oberholser include:
Protein Structure

• Intro. to Protein Structure (a list of other articles, not all authored by Oberholser)
• Ramachandran Plot
• Secondary structure
• Sheets in Proteins
• Phi and Psi Angles
• Turns in Proteins
• Coiled coil
• Calculate structure

Protein Families

• Fibrous Proteins
• Fibroins
• Globular Proteins
• Archaeal Histones

Specific Proteins

• Collagen^[1]
• Oxymyoglobin
• Complex III of Electron Transport Chain
• Green Fluorescent Protein: Research Tool

Nucleic Acid Structure

• Syn and anti nucleosides

Saccharides

• Polysaccharides
• Disaccharides
• Hexoses

Cofactors

• Porphyrin

Oberholser mentored his student Emily Forschler who, while an undergraduate, authored the article Photosystem_II. Oberholser is quoted about the impact of Forschler's article in his class.

Oberholser's article Ramachandran Plot was used to illustrate the power of Proteopedia in Figure 3 in a 2008 publication about Proteopedia^[2].

Oberholser also made significant contributions to many Proteopedia articles, initially written by other authors, and not listed above.

Publications

In addition to various scientific research publications from 1976-1998, Oberholser authored or coauthored the following publications:

• Oberholser K. Proteopedia entry: Ramachandran plots. Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2010 Nov;38(6):430. doi: 10.1002/bmb.20457. PMID:21567876 doi:10.1002/bmb.20457
• Prilusky J, Hodis E, Canner D, Decatur W, Oberholser K, Martz E, Berchanski A, Harel M, Sussman JL. Proteopedia: A status report on the collaborative, 3D web-encyclopedia of proteins and other biomolecules. J Struct Biol. 2011 Apr 23. PMID:21536137 doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2011.04.011

• Adithya S, Oberholser K. Proteopedia Entry: Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2012 40(1):74.

Notes & References

1. ↑ The original Collagen tutorial at Messiah College has been viewed over 20,000 times since 2007.
2. ↑ Hodis E, Prilusky J, Martz E, Silman I, Moult J, Sussman JL. Proteopedia - a scientific 'wiki' bridging the rift between three-dimensional structure and function of biomacromolecules. Genome Biol. 2008;9(8):R121. Epub 2008 Aug 3. PMID:18673581 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/gb-2008-9-8-r121