Prince:Why Proteins

People think about eggs or protein shakes or muscles when they think about proteins. Yes, those things all contain lots of protein, but proteins are so much more. In reality, we study proteins because they are super-complex molecular machines that are the chief actors of life. One can even make a case that Proteins ARE life, and that RNA and DNA merely enable genetic replication (a vast oversimplification, of course).

The key players in all these videos are proteins


 * Inner Life of a Cell
 * Starts outside a cell, shows protein translation, then the packaging of proteins for export or fusion with the plasma membrane.


 * Apoptosis
 * A signal transduction cascade initiating apoptosis


 * DNA replication
 * A complicated assembly of proteins replicates DNA. This even neglects the fact that the DNA is all packed around nucleosomes while this is happening and the DNA superstructure that is unwound and rewound during the process.


 * ATP-synthase
 * Part of how our cells release the energy bound up in molecules. [video at time 1'20'' for protein detail]