Molecular biology as it relates to digital image processing

Abstract

Biological research has been placing increased attention upon the determination of the atomic structures of large molecules. These have generally been proteins and especially enzymes whose molecular weights range up to 50,000. Tremendous efforts to infer functional configurations of active enzyme sites have been expended by organic chemists. But total atomic configuration has been performed exclusively by the digital computer using the methods of x-ray crystallography. The sequences of the amino acids in these enzymes have been determined by organic chemists. The information is then used by the crystallographer to infer initial estimates about the actual geometrical configuration, which the crystallographic data eventually confirm. Several of these molecules and their functions will be described.