High performance liquid chromatography system

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Proteins are life's molecular machines: they have incredibly diverse functions ranging from structural components, to catalysts, to signalling molecules, and many more. Proteins consist of linear chains of building blocks, called amino acids. The chains fold up to form specific structures that determine proteins' unique functions. The information for how proteins fold and function is encoded in their sequence of amino acids. Tremendous genome sequencing initiatives have determined the sequences of vast numbers of proteins, and have shown that single amino acid changes in proteins are associated with many diseases. For example, mutations in the protein superoxide dismutase (SOD) cause the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The sequencing efforts combined with other experimental and computational research have provided extensive information and predictive tools for estimating how amino acid sequence determines protein structure and function, or misfunction in the case of disease. Despite this progress, however, we are still far from being able to accurately and consistently predict how a protein will behave based on its amino acid sequence.