Post 40: Old protein Models 🎨

Legend has it that when structural biology was emerging in the 1960s, people thought that designing/modeling protein structures would be a job. An example is this protein called “myoglobin” that was modeled by John Kendrew (Nobel Prize, 1962). Nowadays, in less than 3 minutes, we can download a file and visualize each and every atom of a protein to see how they interact with other molecules, their electron density, etc. And that, gives a lot to think about.

Here you can interact with a 3D render of the myoglobin modeled by John Kendrew.

John’s myoglobin is even exhibited in a museum.

And his friend Max Perutz (Nobel Prize, 1962) was also skilled at making models.

And here they are together with the model of another protein called “Hemoglobin.”