Physics (Internal)

Shape Shifting: the statistical physics of protein conformational change

This event is part of the Biophysics/Condensed Matter Seminar Series.

ABSTRACT - Since a protein's shape typically provides the basis for
its function, the conformational rearrangements of proteins in
response to ligand binding, mutation, and covalent modification very
often underlie biologically important molecular events, whether in the
normal course of transducing a signal or through deleterious
misfolding.  A new analytical model of how structure depends on
sequence enables us to examine many of these phenomena from the
standpoint of statistical mechanics, so that we may begin to predict
and explain specific changes in protein structure ranging from
allosteric motion to the onset of aggregation disease.