Introduction

Biophysical chemistry is a highly interdisciplinary field that brings together experts and students from numerous backgrounds with the common aim of rigorously quantitating the physical and chemical principles governing biological systems.

• Biophysical Chemistry Joint Group Meetings: Spring 2008
• Learn@UW course materials (accessible to enrolled students)

Biophysical Chemistry Web Site was developed by Dr. Silvia Cavagnero and Emily Wixson. If you have an interesting biomolecule or image you would like to post or wish to comment on site content, please contact Dr. Silvia Cavagnero (cavagnero@chem.wisc.edu). For comments regarding accessibility, please contact Emily Wixson (email)

About this Molecule

The portions of this macromolecule composed of protein are shown in blue. The ribosomal RNA is shown with the bases in white and the phosphate backbone in red. There are 28 proteins and two RNA strands with a total molecular weight of 1,505 kDa.

This animated gif was created with 29 RasMol-generated gifs using Macromedia Fireworks (http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/). The RasMol images were created by reading in the PDB file (1JJ2), setting the viewer to spacefill, then coloring the protein portions of the molecule blue and the RNA red. The phosphate backbone of the RNA was selected and colored white. Individual images represent a 6-degree rotation along the x-axis. The RasMol command "write gif filename.gif" (no quotation marks) was used to save the individual gifs.

For additional information about creating animated gifs from RasMol files, see http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/rotating.htm.