Function of biological macromolecule

William T. Heller obtained his PhD in physics from Rice University in 1999. After postdoctoral training at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he moved to Oak Ridge National Laboratory for additional postdoctoral training before accepting a post as chemist/biophysicist in the Chemical Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His work entails the application of neutron and x-ray scattering methods to the study of the structure and function of biological macromolecules and the characterization of materials. 

Barron LD. Structure and behaviour of biomolecules from Raman optical activity. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 2006 16 638-643. Wuthrich K. NMR studies of structure and function of biological macromolecules (Nobel Lecture). J. Biomolec. NMR 2003 27 13-39. 

A fundamental tenet of molecular biology is that the function of biological macromolecules depends on their structure. As a consequence, these structures tend to be more strongly conserved in evolution than their corresponding sequences. In the case of RNA, structure is most accessible on the level of secondary structure, i.e., the pattern of basepairings. A striking example of such structural conservation are the tRNAs, where almost all tRNA sequences, be they from animals, plants, or bacteria, fold into the characteristic cloverleaf secondary structure. Similar structural conservation is found for most of the... 

K. Wuthrich, NMR Studies of Structure and Function of Biological Macromolecules , 2002, url http //nobelprize.org/nobel prizes/chemistry/ laureates/2002/wutrich-lecture.pdf, date accessed January 5, 2011. 

In recent years, many studies of biological samples carried out on TOP or BS spectrometers addressed the question of how the activities or functions of biological macromolecules are related to their local dynamics. It seems established that systems become active when then-atoms are sufficiently mobile and the macromolecule can explore several conformational substates. 

It seems quite evident that the function of biological macromolecules, and proteins in particular with their ease to evolve the most efficient mechanism for accessing and utilizing its energy sources biological systems as discussed... 

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