full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Baker: 5 challenges we could solve by designing new proteins

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I'm going to tell you about the most amazing mechnais in the world and what we can now do with them. Proteins, some of which you see inside a cell here, crary out essentially all the iatopmrnt functions in our bodies. Proteins digest your food, contract your muscles, fire your neurons and power your immune system. Everything that happens in biology — almost — happens because of ptenoris.

Proteins are linear chains of building blocks called amino acids. nturae uses an alphabet of 20 animo acdis, some of which have nmeas you may have haerd of. In this picture, for scale, each bump is an atom. Chemical forces between the amino acids cause these long stringy molecules to fold up into unique, three-dimensional structures. The folding process, while it looks random, is in fact very precise. Each portein folds to its characteristic shape each time, and the folding process takes just a fraction of a second. And it's the shapes of proteins which enbale them to carry out their remarkable biological functions. For example, hemoglobin has a shape in the lungs perfectly suited for binding a mollecue of oxygen. When hemoglobin moves to your muscle, the shape changes slightly and the oxygen comes out.

Open Cloze


I'm going to tell you about the most amazing ________ in the world and what we can now do with them. Proteins, some of which you see inside a cell here, _____ out essentially all the _________ functions in our bodies. Proteins digest your food, contract your muscles, fire your neurons and power your immune system. Everything that happens in biology — almost — happens because of ________.

Proteins are linear chains of building blocks called amino acids. ______ uses an alphabet of 20 _____ _____, some of which have _____ you may have _____ of. In this picture, for scale, each bump is an atom. Chemical forces between the amino acids cause these long stringy molecules to fold up into unique, three-dimensional structures. The folding process, while it looks random, is in fact very precise. Each _______ folds to its characteristic shape each time, and the folding process takes just a fraction of a second. And it's the shapes of proteins which ______ them to carry out their remarkable biological functions. For example, hemoglobin has a shape in the lungs perfectly suited for binding a ________ of oxygen. When hemoglobin moves to your muscle, the shape changes slightly and the oxygen comes out.

Solution


  1. machines
  2. protein
  3. amino
  4. nature
  5. enable
  6. important
  7. molecule
  8. acids
  9. names
  10. heard
  11. proteins
  12. carry

Original Text


I'm going to tell you about the most amazing machines in the world and what we can now do with them. Proteins, some of which you see inside a cell here, carry out essentially all the important functions in our bodies. Proteins digest your food, contract your muscles, fire your neurons and power your immune system. Everything that happens in biology — almost — happens because of proteins.

Proteins are linear chains of building blocks called amino acids. Nature uses an alphabet of 20 amino acids, some of which have names you may have heard of. In this picture, for scale, each bump is an atom. Chemical forces between the amino acids cause these long stringy molecules to fold up into unique, three-dimensional structures. The folding process, while it looks random, is in fact very precise. Each protein folds to its characteristic shape each time, and the folding process takes just a fraction of a second. And it's the shapes of proteins which enable them to carry out their remarkable biological functions. For example, hemoglobin has a shape in the lungs perfectly suited for binding a molecule of oxygen. When hemoglobin moves to your muscle, the shape changes slightly and the oxygen comes out.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
protein design 7
amino acid 6
amino acids 5
immune system 3
acid sequences 3
protein folding 3
synthetic gene 3
total number 3
remarkable biological 2
acid sequence 2
stone age 2
computational protein 2
challenges today 2
designed protein 2
vaccine candidates 2
design revolution 2
bell laboratories 2
immune cells 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
amino acid sequences 3
amino acid sequence 2
protein design revolution 2

Important Words


  1. acids
  2. alphabet
  3. amazing
  4. amino
  5. atom
  6. binding
  7. biological
  8. biology
  9. blocks
  10. bodies
  11. building
  12. bump
  13. called
  14. carry
  15. cell
  16. chains
  17. characteristic
  18. chemical
  19. contract
  20. digest
  21. enable
  22. essentially
  23. fact
  24. fire
  25. fold
  26. folding
  27. folds
  28. food
  29. forces
  30. fraction
  31. functions
  32. heard
  33. hemoglobin
  34. immune
  35. important
  36. linear
  37. long
  38. lungs
  39. machines
  40. molecule
  41. molecules
  42. moves
  43. muscle
  44. muscles
  45. names
  46. nature
  47. neurons
  48. oxygen
  49. perfectly
  50. picture
  51. power
  52. precise
  53. process
  54. protein
  55. proteins
  56. random
  57. remarkable
  58. scale
  59. shape
  60. shapes
  61. slightly
  62. stringy
  63. structures
  64. suited
  65. system
  66. takes
  67. time
  68. unique
  69. world