I left my post doc in biochemistry and microbiology to manage the Immune Attack project at the Federation of American Scientists. The game Immune Attack introduces receptors, clouds of cytokines, cytokinesis, and receptor mediated phagocytosis. The game pulls players into the world of cell to cell signaling and molecular immunology. The game was intended to teach basic cellular immunology to college students. However, I felt that Immune Attack could teach molecular cell biology and teach it to younger students. I created a multiple choice test of molecular and cellular immunology based on the game. I also showed players complex molecular biology images from Nature Immunology Reviews and asked them, “Do you think you could understand this?” Immune Attack students clearly learned molecular immunology and clearly gained confidence in their ability to understand related diagrams (Stegman, 2014). Based on this research, I designed a sequel game, Immune Defense. I am the chair of the DC chapter of the International Game Developer Association (IGDA). I attend regional and national game developer conferences and my game Immune Defense has been accepted in many competitive commercial game expos. I play a lot of video games. A wide range of audiences are interested in my work: I spoke at national meetings for the Association of Medical Illustrators, the National Science Teachers Association, the Serious Play Conference, Games Society and Learning, and the American Society for Cell Biology. My intense time as a “post doc” in serious game design and development has taught me many important skills: 1. How to tease out the core elements of concepts and create an engaging game mechanism. 2. How to present ideas to and collaborate with programmers, artists and other game development professionals. 3. How to playtest and iterate the game so that it is fun and intuitive for players. I have an in depth understanding of the principles of biochemistry and cell biology, the creative vision to produce interactive Technology that presents these principles and experience testing iterative game designs for effectiveness.
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