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Time: 20 hours
Level: Advanced
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 Introduction Resource- This unit examines how self-assembled structures based on lipids and proteins provide a framework for cellular processes.
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- 1 Biological materials Resource
- Materials engineers have long recognised the impressive range and combination of properties offered by biological materials. Figure 1 shows some representative examples of the combination of tensile strength...
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| | 2 Construction with lipids
- 2 Construction with lipids Resource
- The cell membrane is constructed from lipids. Chemically, lipids are a rather varied group of compounds that include all the substances you might already think of as fats or oils. What they have in common...
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| | 3 Providing a framework: structural proteins
- 3.1 Protein diversity Resource
- Of course, our bodies can't just be made up of squidgy bubbles of phospholipid, or we would collapse in a heap on the floor! Stiffer frameworks, both inside and outside the cells, also exist and help to...
- 3.2 Protein structure Resource
- Proteins are one example of a biopolymer. You will already be familiar with synthetic polymers such as polyethylene and nylon: long chains made up of many thousands of repeating units, called monomers,...
- 3.3 Spider silk Resource
- The presence of regions of helical and sheet-like structures within a protein will affect its properties in different ways: a particularly striking example of this is provided by spider silk.
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| | 4 Engineering with proteins
- 4 Engineering with proteins Resource
- What are the prospects for designing and making new proteins for specific purposes? The technology exists to build polypeptide chains unit by unit in a test tube, but this is time-consuming and expensive....
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| | References and Acknowledgements | |
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