Proteins constitute the machinery of the body, both as the major components of cells, tissues and organs and as catalysts of the thousands of chemical reactions that are essential for our bodies to grow, digest food, breathe, move our muscles, and even to think. Almost always working with other proteins, they define highly integrated molecular networks. Changes in the ways proteins operate or interact with others can sometimes signal disease.

The Institute has a long tradition of excellence in the study of proteins, particularly in the study of the interactions between proteins. Our scientists have made many important contributions to the development of biophysical techniques for the study of how proteins interact and take pride in our state-of-the-art instrumentation for such studies. Using biophysical approaches, we are able to study the interaction of proteins and obtain important mechanistic and structural information and have made basic contributions with regard to how proteins in muscle interact and control the contractile process. Studying proteins and their interactions in both normal and diseased slates allows us to determine those significant differences that will provide novel avenues for therapeutic strategies.