Biologically important processes

Nucleic acids can form complex structures that consist of more than two strands. Recently, the interest in structures and functions of the DNA bases polyads has significantly increased. It has been shown that guanine tetrads are vital components of many biologically important processes. 

In the following, we initially discuss the advances that have been made at the technical level, and then introduce some of the many applications that exploit the new methods for the study of biologically important processes. 

It is useful to understand how to prepare a buffer solution and how to determine the pH of the resulting solution. Many chemical reactions produce the largest amount of product only when they are run at a known, constant pH. The study of biologically important processes in the laboratory often requires conditions that approximate the composition of biological fluids. A constant pH would certainly be essential. 

Calmodulin is a calcium-binding protein that regulates several biologically important processes by interacting with various proteins. This protein was targeted with a disulfide-based DCL in a pre-equilibrated strategy [52]. A DCL generated from five cysteine-based derivatives was allowed to interact with the protein in the... 

Synthesis is in an excellent state of health and constitutes a marvellous tool, providing us with substances with which we can test mechanistic aspects of biologically important processes. In the first part of the panel discussion I would like to tackle this role of organic synthesis as a tool. We need not discuss the synthesis of labelled substrates since these only require the modification or extension of existing syntheses. Nevertheless, I remind you that, for the study of biosynthetic pathways, total synthesis is often required to prepare putatative intermediates which display a specific label, a heavy isotope, at a give position. Discussions on previous days has made us all aware of the importance of total synthesis for the obtention of mimics of cofactors or enzymes. 

In dilute aqueous solutions, biomolecules are completely covered by water molecules. The structure of water near a boundary essentially differs from the structure of bulk water (see Sections 2 and 5). Specific water structure is seen in one or two water layers near hydrophilic surfaces, whereas the rest of liquid water is bulk-like. This is also the case for the surfaces of biomolecules, which allow consideration of hydration water as a separate subsystem. Conformational transitions and aggregation of biomolecules occur in dilute solution due to variations of temperature and/or pressure and due to additions of some cosolvents. It is natural to expect that these biologically important processes are related to the changes in the state of hydration water shell. First, we consider the effect of heating on the state of hydration water shell and on the properties of biomolecules. Then, we discuss the dynamic transition of biomolecules and pressure-induced denaturation in relation with the liquid-liquid transitions of hydration water. 

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