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RefNoEC/1996/45
LevelItem
TitleRossmann, Michael George: certificate of election to the Royal Society
Date1994
DescriptionCertificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed
CitationRossmann is a leading figure in the analysis of biomolecular structure. In 1959, his innovative use o o the difference Patterson method allowed the heavy atom positions in haemoglobin crystals to be determined, and this was crucial for the solution of the structure. His work in the early 1960's laid the foundation of the molecular replacement technique, which has proved widely applicable in the analysis of oligomeric molecules containing units whose structure is approximately known. His study of lactate dehydrogenase identified the first super-secondary structure, an element composed of six parallel beta -strands with a characteristic linkage through alpha -helices found in many different proteins, and known universally as the Rossmann fold. Application of the molecular replacement technique to oligomeric or polymeric assemblies containing units related by non-crystllographic symmetry provided the key to the determination of increasingly complex virus structures by X-raydiffraction, especially the analysis of the picornaviruses. Rossmann discovered that the polypeptide chain in the capsid proteins of these animal viruses are folded according to the same pattern as that previously found in plant viruses, which suggested that plant and animal viruses had a common evolutioary origin. He observed that certain viruses, especially the human rhinovirus, contain a deep canyon or pit in their surface, believed to be the site for cell receptor binding, so shaped that it is inaccessible for antibody recognition, and he stimulated a search for molecules which prevent receptor binding, or inhibit the uncoating process which allows release of the infectious nucleic acid into the target cell. Rossmann continues to be extraordinarily productive, and every paper of his is interesting.
AccessStatusClosed
Fellows associated with this archive
CodePersonNameDates
NA4710Rossmann; Michael George (1930 - 2019)1930 - 2019
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