New insights into processes vital to cellular functions and
human health: Physicists manipulate single molecules to unravel
secrets of protein folding 27.10.2011, Press releases Physicists
at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are opening a new
window into the life of biological cells, using a technique that
lets them grab the ends of a single protein molecule and pull,
making continuous, direct measurements as it unfolds and
refolds. Their latest results, reported in the journal Science,
reveal a complex network of intermediate structural and kinetic
states along the way to functionally correct folded forms,
including both express routes and dead ends. Better
understanding of protein folding is essential because
incorrectly folded proteins cause diseases such as Alzheimer's
and Parkinson's. The experiments focused on the protein
calmodulin, which is not implicated in these diseases but plays
a role in many processes vital to cellular functions, and thus
to human health. The functions (and malfunction