Keeping an eye on the surroundings
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 13:14
in Biology & Nature
Water is no passive spectator of biological processes; it is an active participant. Protein folding is thus a self-organized process in which the actions of the solvent play a key role. So far, the emphasis in studies of protein folding processes has been on observation of the protein backbone and its side chains. Researchers led by Martin Gruebele and Martina Havenith have now been able to detect changes in the protein -water network during protein folding in real time.