Problem solving in the time of coronavirus pandemic

Problem solving, multiple-choice question-based educational tools have been used for decades in molecular cell biology courses at the University of Pecs Medical School, Pecs, Hungary. A set of these tests was published in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education between 2002 and 2015. Such tests using an experimental approach help students to understand how living cells function. Besides being tools of education, they can be used for examination purposes as well to assess higher levels of intellectual skills (interpretation and problem solving) acquired by the students. The test presented in this paper is based on parts of an original publication in which the authors described seminal observations on the function of a viral protein in the infection process of SARS-CoV-2. The test is aimed at helping the students to understand the methods used in the experiments, to analyze the data and to draw conclusions from them regarding certain aspects of the mechanism of coronavirus infection.