{"id":129936,"date":"2021-11-03T18:23:46","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T01:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/quantum-physics-in-proteins-ai-affords-unprecedented-insights-into-how-biomolecules-work"},"modified":"2021-11-03T18:23:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T01:23:46","slug":"quantum-physics-in-proteins-ai-affords-unprecedented-insights-into-how-biomolecules-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/quantum-physics-in-proteins-ai-affords-unprecedented-insights-into-how-biomolecules-work","title":{"rendered":"Quantum physics in proteins: AI affords unprecedented insights into how biomolecules work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/quantum-physics-in-proteins-ai-affords-unprecedented-insights-into-how-biomolecules-work2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A new analytical technique is able to provide hitherto unattainable insights into the extremely rapid dynamics of biomolecules. The team of developers, led by Abbas Ourmazd from the University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee and Robin Santra from DESY, is presenting its clever combination of quantum physics and molecular biology in the scientific journal <i>Nature<\/i>. The scientists used the technique to track the way in which the photoactive yellow protein (PYP) undergoes changes in its structure in less than a trillionth of a second after being excited by light.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn order to precisely understand biochemical processes in nature, such as photosynthesis in certain bacteria, it is important to know the detailed sequence of events,\u201d Santra says. \u201cWhen light strikes photoactive proteins, their spatial structure is altered, and this structural change determines what role a protein takes on in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Until now, however, it has been almost impossible to track the exact sequence in which structural changes occur. Only the initial and final states of a molecule before and after a reaction can be determined and interpreted in theoretical terms. \u201cBut we don\u2019t know exactly how the energy and shape changes in between the two,\u201d says Santra. \u201cIt\u2019s like seeing that someone has folded their hands, but you can\u2019t see them interlacing their fingers to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new analytical technique is able to provide hitherto unattainable insights into the extremely rapid dynamics of biomolecules. The team of developers, led by Abbas Ourmazd from the University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee and Robin Santra from DESY, is presenting its clever combination of quantum physics and molecular biology in the scientific journal Nature. The scientists used [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,1617,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-chemistry","category-quantum-physics","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}