Reality → Life → Biochem → Molecular structures

Detecting molecular structures

• X-ray crystallography. Analysis of diffraction patterns allows determination of the position of individual atoms ^[1] . The method is suitable for large bio-macromolecules if these can be grown as pure crystals in the lab. About 100,000 molecular structures of proteins, nucleic acids, and their complexes have been determined based on crystallography.
• NMR spectroscopy. Scanning of nuclear magnetic resonance at different radio frequencies allows the identification of the structure of smaller biomolecules in a watery solution. About 10,000 molecular structures of relatively small protein and nucleic acid molecules have been determined based on NMR spectroscopy.
• Electron cryotomography. Exposure of rapidly frozen samples to electron beams allows the identification of large structures at lower resolution than X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy ^[2] .
• Optical tweezers. A highly focused laser beam can hold and manipulate microscopic objects. The method has been useful in recent years to study proteins and molecular machines ^[3] .
• Computational chemistry. Sophisticated software packages run on supercomputers are part of the tools used for identifying and designing new complex molecular structures ^[4] .

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