Changeux. Jean-Pierre

Changeux, Jean-Pierre (1993). Chemical Signaling in the Brain. Scientific American 269(5) 58-62. 

Changeux, Jean-Pierre Devillers-Thiery, Anne and Chemeuilli, PhiUippe (1984). The Acetylcholine Receptor An Allosteric Protein. Science 25 1335-1345. 

In 1965, Jacques Monod, Jeffries Wyman, and Jean-Pierre Changeux proposed a theoretical model of allosteric transitions based on the observation that allosteric proteins are oligomers. They suggested that allosteric proteins can exist in (at least) two conformational states, designated R, signifying relaxed, and T, or taut, and that, in each protein molecule, all of the subunits have the same conformation (either R or T). That is, molecular symmetry is conserved. Molecules of mixed conformation (having subunits of both R and T states) are not allowed by this model. 

The first model was proposed by Jacques Monod, Jeffries Wyman, and Jean-Pierre Changeux in 1965, and is called the MWC model or the concerted model... 

The concerted model was first proposed by Jacques Monod, Jeffries Wyman, and Jean-Pierre Changeux hence, it is often referred to as the MWC model. This model can be formulated in quantitative terms. Consider an enzyme with n identical active sites. Suppose that the enzyme exists in equilibrium between a T form with a low affinity for its substrate and an R form with a high affinity for the substrate. We can define L as the equilibrium constant between the R and the T forms c as the ratio of the affinities of the two forms for the substrate, S, measured as dissociation constants and a as the ratio of substrate concentration to the dissociation constant K... 

Steven Pinker, "Facts about human language relevant to its evolution" in origins of the Human Brain, Jean-Pierre Changeux and Jean Chavaillon, editors, A Fyssen Foundation Symposium, clarendon Press, Oxford, chl7. (back)... 

There is in living organisms, human beings and societies a balance between these main two forces, between creative asymmetry, imagination, or revolution and cooperative symmetry logic or order between Dionysios and Apollon Jean-Pierre Changeux... 

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