Molecular biologist

C Chothia. One thousand families for the molecular biologist. Nature 360 543-544, 1992. 

BioMolecular research tools—A collection of WWW links to information and services useful to molecular biologists http //www.public.iastate.edu/ pedro/research tools.html... 

The World Wide Web has transformed the way in which we obtain and analyze published information on proteins. What only a few years ago would take days or weeks and require the use of expensive computer workstations can now be achieved in a few minutes or hours using personal computers, both PCs and Macintosh, connected to the internet. The Web contains hundreds of sites of Interest to molecular biologists, many of which are listed in Pedro s BioMolecular Research Tools (http // www.fmi.ch/biology/research tools.html). Many sites provide free access to databases that make it very easy to obtain information on structurally related proteins, the amino acid sequences of homologous proteins, relevant literature references, medical information and metabolic pathways. This development has opened up new opportunities for even non-specialists to view and manipulate a structure of interest or to carry out amino-acid sequence comparisons, and one can now rapidly obtain an overview of a particular area of molecular biology. We shall here describe some Web sites that are of interest from a structural point of view. Updated links to these sites can be found in the Introduction to Protein Structure Web site (http // WWW.ProteinStructure.com/). 

In a letter of unspecified date to a biologist, Linus Pauling is reported as writing (Anon 1998) "You refer to me as a biochemist, which is hardly correct. I can properly be called a chemist, or a phy.sical chemist, or a physicist, or an X-ray crystallographer, or a mineralogist, or a molecular biologist, but not, I think, a biochemist,"... 

Along with code breakers, weather forecasters, and molecular biologists, chemists are now among the heaviest users of computers, which they use to calculate the detailed electronic structures of atoms and molecules (see Major Technique 5, following Chapter 13). 

If we can develop accurate quantitative models that simulate how cells respond to various enviromnental changes, we can better utilize the chemical synthesis capabilities of cells. Steps toward this goal are being taken. Models of the common gut bacterium Escherichia coli have been developed from mechanisms of subcellular processes discovered or postulated by molecular biologists. These models have progressed to the point where they can be used with experiments to discriminate among postulated mechanisms for control of subcellular processes. 

Biochemists and molecular biologists use phosphate buffers to match physiological conditions. A buffer solution that contains H2 PO4 as the weak acid and HP04 as the weak base has a pH value very close to 7.0. A biochemist prepares 0.250 L of a buffer solution that contains 0.225 M HP04 and 0.330 M H2 PO4. What is the pH of this buffer solution Is the buffering action of this solution destroyed by addition of 0.40 g NaOH ... 

From purified receptor protein, obtain partial amino-acid sequence information which will allow molecular biologists to isolate the gene (or genes) coding for the receptor. 

Dextran is the first microbial polysaccharide produced and utilized on an industrial scale. The potential importance of dextran as a structually (and property) controlled feedstock is clearly seen in light of the recent emphasis of molecular biologists and molecular engineers in the generation of microbes for feedstock production. Dextran is employed as pharmaceuticals (additives and coatings of medications), within cosmetics, as food extenders, as water-loss inhibitors in oilwell drilling muds and as the basis for a number of synthetic resins. 

Protein crystallography often requires special constructs or mutants to facilitate crystallization it also requires large quantities of highly purified protein. Thus to move forward in a timely fashion, it is important that an industrial structural biology group employ molecular biologists and individuals with expertise in protein purification. 

Ironically, in the first half of the Twentieth century, molecular biologists rejected nucleic acids as a genetic material, since they seemed entirely too simple, compared to proteins, to play roles in both heredity and development. 

The developmental molecular biologist, S. B. Carroll (and colleagues), who reported the beginnings of the proximal explanation sketched above, eventually turned their attention to elucidating the ultimate explanation. Carroll and co-workers write ... 

Hagen, J. B. (1999), Naturalists, molecular biologists, and the challenges of molecular biology , Journal of the History of Biology, 32, 321-341. 

Armando Aranda I m asking you a question because I m a molecular biologist, and I would like to know whether you have a theory about why fairly shallow tales such as those written by Dennett and Dawkins are so popular among molecular biologists - why they have such an important appeal. I m really glad to find out that they are not particularly popular among philosophers, but nevertheless they are bestsellers. 

---