Discussion 1: Chemistry and Structural Biology

Chemistry and structural biology of DNA damage and biological consequences.

The formation of adducts by the reaction of chemicals with DNA is a critical step for the initiation of carcinogenesis. The structural analysis of various DNA adducts reveals that conformational and chemical rearrangements and interconversions are a common theme. Conformational changes are modulated both by the nature of adduct and the base sequences neighboring the lesion sites. Equilibria bet...

PCSB-a program collection for structural biology and biophysical chemistry

We present the first package of Java classes specifically aimed at the handling of structural and biophysical problems. To enable object-oriented programming a basis of fundamental Java classes is required which deals with basic operations of vectors, matrices, amino acid sequences, crystal symmetries and PDB files. Five classes, which carry out these basic operations, were constructed and bund...

Structural biology and chemistry of protein arginine methyltransferases

Protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs), an emerging target class in drug discovery, can methylate histones and other substrates, and can be divided into three subgroups, based on the methylation pattern of the reaction product (monomethylation, symmetrical or asymmetrical dimethylation). Here, we review the growing body of structural information characterizing this protein family, includin...

Structural Chemistry in Relation ‘ to Biology and Medicine

Chemistry and biology of vision.

Visual perception in humans occurs through absorption of electromagnetic radiation from 400 to 780 nm by photoreceptors in the retina. A photon of visible light carries a sufficient amount of energy to cause, when absorbed, a cis,trans-geometric isomerization of the 11-cis-retinal chromophore, a vitamin A derivative bound to rhodopsin and cone opsins of retinal photoreceptors. The unique bioche...