Structural Biology
Structural biology is a field where researchers study mainly about a structure of biological molecular and their role using x-ray. Why they do that? It's because their structure enable them to work correctly. If the structure is changed by heat, pH, and genetic variation, they don't work and may cause some diseases. If we can understand their structure and how to make designed protein in detail, we can operate a lot of chemical reactions, for example, creating oil, producing energy by daylight more efficiently, and so on.
I'll tell a example about a disease, Sickle Cell Anemia, caused by structural change in protein. It prevents red blood cells from working properly, making hemoglobin's variation. The change is in hemoglobin's amino acid. An amino acid is exchanged into another and the hemoglobin can't bind to O2 well. While it causes anemia, these hemoglobin prevents malaria.
Good post! I like it.
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