Proteins don’t get a lot of publicity, at least not compared with their glamour-puss cousins DNA and RNA. DNA, ensconced deep in the nucleus of cells, is the fountainhead, the living library of genes that embodies the very blueprints of life. And DNA begets RNA, the intrepid genetic messenger, braving the wilds of the cell to deliver DNA’s instructions to outlying factories that translate the blueprints into building materials-- that is, into proteins. Proteins just do all the work: they assemble, modify, and maintain the cells. True, without the efforts of these blue- collar laborers there would be no life at all, but proteins seem to lack the flash that has made heroes of their genetic kin.
But at last proteins are coming into their own. Proteins are amazing and subtle, says Peter S. Kim of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at MIT. ...
