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SUMMARY:How nature &quot\;designs&quot\; elastic polymers - Dr Jane Clarke
 \, Department of Chemistry
DTSTART:20061116T164500Z
DTEND:20061116T171500Z
UID:TALK5263@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Duncan Simpson
DESCRIPTION:Many proteins in the body experience and transduce mechanical 
 forces\, including proteins in muscle\, the extracellular matrix\, cell ad
 hesion molecules and proteins in the cytoskeleton.  These proteins have to
  maintain their structure intact when force is applied.  This is a protein
  folding problem - how do proteins resist this force?  We are using atomic
  force microscopy\, combined with protein engineering and molecular dynami
 cs simulations to investigate the molecular basis for mechanical strength 
 in elastic proteins.\nMost elastic proteins are long\, with tandem repeats
  of structurally identical domains\, each around 100 amino acids long.  Pr
 oteins will aggregate (particularly when unfolded) when placed at high con
 centrations yet in tandem repeat proteins the local concentration of prote
 ins domains is high. There is evidence to suggest that proteins have speci
 fic evolved mechanisms to avoid this problem. \n
LOCATION:Kaetsu Centre\, New Hall
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