Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Legend


Larry Bird, Tony Hawk, Babe Ruth, Marlon Brando, we pay tribute to the old heroes. However, up against Lebron James or Shawn White our heroes would surly fall short. But, there will never be another Larry Bird, so pay tribute to Lysozyme the hero of biochemical proteins. With out it the game never would have been the same.

         Yea there’s all these all these other “hot shot” proteins floating around, but Lysozyme developed the game. Lysozyme encompasses, fate, destiny, and is known as a legend, ever since that night it was accidentally found in the petri dish. Yup! That’s right folks, Lysozyme was that famous accidental antibiotic spill that resulted in the greatest antibiotic, penicillin.  Lysozyme was later thanked by our bodies as an antimicrobial enzyme that cleaves the β(14) glycosidic bond in the cell walls of the bacteria, preventing diseases like Cystic fibrosis and pneumonia [2]. Giving all you sleep and money deprived Pre-med students a reason to get up in the morning, with the dream to prescribe antibacterial medications derived from the legendary Lysozyme.

         And for all you Biochemical majors with you starry eyes set on the complex structures like ATP synthase and the hopeful ability to engineer mutated proteins to combat resistant bacteria. Please pay your dues to Lysozyme. It was the first enzyme structure to be solved via X ray diffraction, and the first enzyme to be fully sequenced to have all the amino acids. All the techniques used to sequence the new  “hot shot” proteins have traces back to Lysozyme. Lysozyme is even a key protein used in stability experiments to learn the essential amino acids involved in active site stability by introduction of CYS bonds[3]. If you like proteins you like Lysozyme.


         For all the students who fall in some other sort of study, and somehow find time to have lives out side of the library. Lysozyme is not only a workaholic, but a partyholic as well. Bacteria produce lactic acid, which spoils beer and wine. Reducing the shelf life of beer. Lysozyme causes the rupture of these Cell walls giving beer its definitive taste for longer. We have fun because Lysozyme, stay healthy because of Lysozyme and get jobs because of Lysozyme.