Biophysicists manipulate 'zipper,' reveal protein folding dynamics

Biophysicists in Germany have published results of single-molecule experiments bringing a higher-resolution tool to the study of protein folding. They report taking hold of a single, zipper-like protein molecule with optical tweezers and mapping changes in its "energy landscape" during folding and unfolding, measuring thousands of transitions between states. This approach allows new insight into how proteins reach 3-D shapes that determine essential functions, or cause diseases when folding goes wrong.

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