Research report 2009 - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart site

Protein Mechanics - from Force Sensors to Tough Materials

Authors
Gräter, Frauke
Departments

Protein Mechanik und Evolution (Dr. Frauke Gräter)
MPI für Metallforschung, Stuttgart

Summary
All living organisms adapt to mechanical forces by sophisticated mechanisms, with proteins being the major players. What are the design principles that enable proteins and biomaterials to respond to mechanical forces? Nature has come up with solutions handling a wide range of conditions, such as those in tensed muscle, flowing blood or stretched silk fibers. New approaches based on high-performance simulations increasingly help to reveal and engineer the force-carrying and force-sensing building blocks in these biological systems and materials.

For the full text, see the German version.

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