Dr. Lundquist and other faculty in Molecular Biosciences are banking that these experimental strategies will contribute to understanding the molecular basis of cancer, as well as human brain development. Dr. Jeff Urbauer's research centers on the structure and function of proteins and the interactions between proteins. Proteins are essential for virtually all cellular and biological processes in organisms, from humans to microbes. Proteins, called enzymes, catalyze most chemical reactions in cellular metabolism. Other proteins are necessary for relaying chemical signals in the cell and monitoring a cell's environment.
Proteins are also important in maintaining the structure of cells and their organelles.
More importantly, understanding protein structure and function is very important in treating diseases, as most drugs exert their pharmacological actions by binding to specific proteins to alter their functions. This instrumentation allows him to study proteins at the resolution of single atoms. Each protein, and there are thousands, has unique functional properties which depend on its 3-D structure. This information is critical to understanding how a protein functions, and designing new drugs that fit specifically into a nook or cranny to change a protein's function in a predetermined manner. Sigma is very important because it controls the growth and replication of bacteria.