Biophysics and the Genomic Sciences

Biological Sciences: Biophysics

In this study, we explore nucleation and the transition state ensemble of the ribosomal protein S6 using a Monte Carlo Go model in conjunction with restraints from experiment. The results are analyzed in the context of extensive experimental and evolutionary data. The roles of individual residues in the folding nucleus are identified and the order of events in the S6 folding mechanism is explor...

Standards in Genomic Sciences

The State of Standards in Genomic Sciences

On July 20, 2009, we began the public phase of an experiment in open access publishing with the first issue of Standards in Genomic Sciences (SIGS) [1]. The rational for the journal was to fulfill a perceived need in the community for the continued publication of “genome papers”, the once familiar companion articles that accompanied the public release of genome sequencing projects. Those papers...

Exploring the post-genomic world: differing explanatory and manipulatory functions of post-genomic sciences.

Richard Lewontin proposed that the ability of a scientific field to create a narrative for public understanding garners it social relevance. This article applies Lewontin's conceptual framework of the functions of science (manipulatory and explanatory) to compare and explain the current differences in perceived societal relevance of genetics/genomics and proteomics. We provide three examples to...

Implications for Undergraduate Education of Two Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences: Biochemistry and Biophysics

As CBE—Life Sciences Education readers know, modern biology has become more quantitative and mechanistic rather than qualitative and phenomenological. Indeed, the American Society for Cell Biology (2010) notes that “biology learning encompasses diverse fields, including math, chemistry, physics, engineering, and computer science, as well as the interdisciplinary intersections of biology with th...