full transcript

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

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Proteins are linear chains of bdilnuig blocks called amino acids. Nature uses an alphabet of 20 amnio acids, some of which have names you may have heard of. In this picture, for scale, each bump is an atom. caceihml forces between the amino acids cause these long stignry 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 prneiots which enable them to crary out their rerbaamlke biological fciunnots. For example, hemoglobin has a shape in the lungs prctefely suited for binding a molecule of oxygen. When hemoglobin moves to your muscle, the shape changes slightly and the oxygen comes out.

Open Cloze

Proteins are linear chains of ________ blocks called amino acids. Nature uses an alphabet of 20 _____ acids, some of which have names you may have heard of. In this picture, for scale, each bump is an atom. ________ forces between the amino acids cause these long _______ 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 ________ which enable them to _____ out their __________ biological _________. For example, hemoglobin has a shape in the lungs _________ suited for binding a molecule of oxygen. When hemoglobin moves to your muscle, the shape changes slightly and the oxygen comes out.

Solution

  1. building
  2. amino
  3. perfectly
  4. carry
  5. proteins
  6. functions
  7. stringy
  8. chemical
  9. remarkable

Original Text

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. amino
  4. atom
  5. binding
  6. biological
  7. blocks
  8. building
  9. bump
  10. called
  11. carry
  12. chains
  13. characteristic
  14. chemical
  15. enable
  16. fact
  17. fold
  18. folding
  19. folds
  20. forces
  21. fraction
  22. functions
  23. heard
  24. hemoglobin
  25. linear
  26. long
  27. lungs
  28. molecule
  29. molecules
  30. moves
  31. muscle
  32. names
  33. nature
  34. oxygen
  35. perfectly
  36. picture
  37. precise
  38. process
  39. protein
  40. proteins
  41. random
  42. remarkable
  43. scale
  44. shape
  45. shapes
  46. slightly
  47. stringy
  48. structures
  49. suited
  50. takes
  51. time
  52. unique