Building a binding community - Capacity and capability for affinity and kinetic analysis of molecular interactions.

我们身体的细胞含有成千上万种不同的分子。就像制造机器的部件一样，这些部件必须正确地协同工作，才能让我们健康。一些分子相互协作，组装成持久的机器来完成它们的工作。其他分子则以短信号的形式工作，很快就会关闭。有时，这些正常的过程会因为癌症或基因突变而出错。我们想要购买的机器将帮助我们了解这些分子出了什么问题。它还将帮助我们找到分子，我们可能会开发成药物，让事情再次正常运行。所有其他生物，包括那些引起疾病的生物，如细菌和病毒，也都含有制造机器和发送信号的分子。了解这些分子是如何工作的，可以帮助我们针对疾病。我们还可以使用这台机器来开发测试，以更快地检测疾病。就像乐高和Duplo一样，这些不同分子的形状、大小和粘性影响着哪些分子能够相互作用。然而，与儿童玩具的比较只是一个有用的起点，用来思考分子之间是如何粘在一起的，或者不粘在一起。事实证明，有一套完整的词汇来描述乐高积木。每块砖上的凸起被称为“螺柱”，可以安装在另一块砖上的孔中。“螺柱”的形状和大小对于块之间的粘合很重要。如果分子像乐高一样工作，那么我们的工作就会很容易。这是理解乐高工作原理的儿童游戏。然而，生物学使用不同种类的螺柱将分子粘合在一起。分子更像是乐高积木、Duplo和尼龙搭扣的混合物--不同形状的粘性比特。很难预测哪些分子会与每个分子相互作用，相互作用的程度如何，或者哪些分子不会相互作用。有时我们只需要把各种东西混合在一起，看看会发生什么。我们想买的机器将进行这种混合，告诉我们分子之间的粘合有多强，以及哪些分子不能相互粘合。它将对数百个分子做到这一点，一夜之间运行。有了大量的信息，我们可以更好地设计更多的实验，以帮助我们了解分子是如何工作的，以及当事情出错导致疾病时会发生什么。

The cells of our bodies contain many thousands of different molecules. Like the parts making a machine, these have to work together correctly for us to be healthy. Some molecules work with each other, assembled into long-lasting machines to do their jobs. Other molecules work as short signals which are quickly switched off. Sometimes these normal processes go wrong, through cancer or genetic mutation. The machine we want to buy will help us understand what has gone wrong with these molecules. It will also help us find molecules we might develop into drugs to get things working correctly again. All other organisms including those causing disease such as bacteria and viruses also contain molecules making machines and sending signals. Understanding how these molecules work can help us target diseases. We can also use the machine to develop tests to detect diseases more quickly. Like Lego versus Duplo - the shape, size and stickiness of those different molecules affects which ones are able to interact with each other. However, the comparison with children's toys is only useful as a starting point for thinking about how molecules stick to each other, or don't. It turns out there's a whole set of words to describe Lego bricks. The bumps on each block are called "studs" which fit into holes in another brick. The shape and size of "studs" is important for the blocks sticking to each other. If molecules worked like Lego, then our job would be easy. It's child's play understanding how Lego works. Biology though uses different kinds of studs to stick molecules together. Molecules are more like a mixture of Lego studs, Duplo and Velcro - different shapes of sticky bits. It becomes very difficult to predict which molecules will interact with each and how tightly, or which won't interact. Sometimes we just need to mix things and see what happens. The machine we want to buy will do this mixing, telling us how strongly molecules will stick to each other and which molecules can't stick to each other. It will do this for hundreds of molecules, running overnight. With lots of information, we can better design more experiments to help us understand how molecules work and what happens when things go wrong, causing diseases.