Structure and dynamics in small biomolecular systems

ISBN-13: 9783639166583 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 136 str.

Ivo Kalkman

Opis

The exact structure of large, biologicallyinteresting molecules such as proteins is veryimportant for the functions these molecules fulfill.To increase our understanding of the relationshipbetween structure and function, and to enhance thepredictive power of theoretical models, thestructures of a few small model systems have beendetermined very precisely. Each of these modelsystems is closely related to important structuralelements in proteins or DNA. The structuredetermination itself takes place by irradiating themolecules with UV laserlight and detecting whichcolors are absorbed by the molecule. It is found thatespecially the structures of systems with severalchemically weak bonds differ substantially fromtheoretical predictions. Since the overall structureof nearly all large biomolecules is ultimatelydetermined by these types of bonds the resultspresented in this thesis can be viewed as a small butimportant step towards a better understanding ofbiomolecular behavior in general.

O autorze

Ivo Kalkman (Tiel, 1979) studied Physics in Nijmegen, the
Netherlands, where he graduated with a theoretical specialization
at the Astrophysics department in 2002. He also performed his PhD
research at the Radboud University of Nijmegen, doing
experimental work at the Molecular and Biophysics department. He
obtained his PhD on February 20th, 2009.