Ancillary support for biomedical research is housed in a general biochemistry laboratory, which is equipped for biological sample manipulation. Recent experiments have shown that enzymes are flexible structures. Internal movements in enzymes in a short time scale have been postulated and detected. What the role of the solvent is, whether this peculiar feature of an enzyme is related to its function, and how the internal dynamics change when the substrate binds to the active site are just a few of many interesting questions. A complete time description of an enzyme is the ultimate goal.
Many enzymes contain fluorescent probes.
Time-resolved emission anisotropy is used to gain information about their local flexibility. A study in different solvents, in dehydrated powders and with substrates and inhibitors, would give a description of the changes induced by these factors in the conformational flexibility. In the frequency-domain, propagation of the AM intensity wave in a highly scattering medium is analogous with wave optics. An object immersed in the medium produces deformation of the propagation wavefront of the amplitude modulated wave and results in an easy identification of absorbing and scattering objects such as blood vessels or bone. Computer algorithms display in real-time the wavefront of the AM wave after traversing the tissue.