Paper Protein Activity Fold here

Part 1: Amino Acids Previous crease

Fold here
Previous crease 1
Fold here
Previous crease 1

Fold
Fold here
Fold
here
here
Previous
Previous crease
Previous
crease
crease 11
1 2

1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1. Fold a single piece of paper in half diagonally 6 7
2. Fold the paper in half diagonally again
3. Your folded paper should look like this
4. Unfold the paper

11 1 22 2 33 3 454 4 6
5 6 7

5 6 7

8 9 10
55 5 66 6 77 7 8 9
5. Fold the paper in half
6. Fold the paper in half again
7. Your folded paper should look like this
8. Unfold8the top layer of the9 square halfway 10
11 12 13 14

Arizona Science Center & Ask A Biologist Funded by the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes for Health Page 21
88 8 99 9 1010
10 11 12
 6 7 888 999 1
10
10

6 6 6 7 7 7
11

88 99 10
10 11 12 13
1
9. Open the top layer of the square and flatten it into a triangle, using the existing creases
10. Your folded paper should look like this
11. Flip it over
10 11 11 1212 13
13
12. Unfold the top layer halfway
11 1 112 1 13

9 9 10 10 10

11
11 12
12 13
13 14
14
15 16 17
2

2 13 14 15
15
15 16
16
16 17
1717
32
13. Open the top layer and flatten it into a triangle, using the existing creases
14. Your folded paper should look like this
12 12 1215. Fold the 13 of13
13 edges the top layer only14into14
14
the center line
43
16. Your folded paper should look like this

15
15 16
16 17
17 18
18 19
19 4
66

16 17 18 19
6 7

16 16 16 17 17 17 18 18 18 19 19 19
6 6 6 7
17. Flip it over
18. Fold the edges of the top layer only into the center line
19. Youve now completed one amino acid. Repeat these steps with another piece of paper until
youve created a total of eight amino acids.
88
And, thats it!
Once you have amino acids, you are ready to move onto Part 2 to make the protein channel.

8
Arizona Science Center & Ask A Biologist Funded by the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes for Health Page 22

8 8 8
Paper Protein Activity
Part 2: Protein Channel

1 2 5
1. Make eight amino acids. Each amino acid
has four tabs that open up into a pocket
3

6 7 8 9
2 2. Place two
5 amino acids so the open ends
face each other. Insert the top tabs of one
amino acid into the tabs of the other
3. Your paper should look like this
3 4. Fold your paper shape in half
5. Your amino acid should look like this

2 5
5. Your amino acid should look like this

3 8 9

4
1
2 5

3
Arizona Science Center & Ask A Biologist Funded by the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes for Health Page 23

8 9 4
 10

2 56 7 8 9
6. Continue adding units using step 2-4
3 2 5

4 3

7
1 7. When you are finished, you should have
9
62 5 7 a string

9
2 5

14 8 9
3
7 8. Your protein channel is complete, and
should look like this
4

18 19
6 7
9
9. Your protein model can change shapes by
flipping the point to the center, all at once

8 9

Arizona Science Center & Ask A Biologist Funded by the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes for Health Page 24