Prof. Joseph Klafter: "Proteins: a showcase of strange kinetics"

Proteins: a showcase of strange kinetics

There has been growing evidence, based on single molecule measurements and on molecular dynamics calculations, that proteins display strange kinetics. Namely, their dynamics is characterized by slow relaxation of correlations, by anomalous diffusion, and by broad distributions of unfolding times and of enzymatic reaction rates. Time-dependent observables show usually multi-exponential, stretched exponential or power law behavior. We will review a few examples and introduce a protein network model that may account for some of these observed properties. The model, which suggests fractal-like characteristics of proteins, also accounts for the necessary coexistence of protein stability and flexibility. An "equation of state" for proteins is proposed and verified for a large set of protein structures taken from the PDB.