Structural Biology
Structural biology is a branch of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics concerned with the molecular structure of biological macromolecules (especially proteins, made up of amino acids, and RNA or DNA, made up of nucleotides), how they acquire the structures they have, and how alterations in their structures affect their function. This subject is of great interest to biologists because macromolecules carry out most of the functions of cells, and it is only by coiling into specific three-dimensional shapes that they are able to perform these functions. This architecture, the "tertiary structure" of molecules, depends in a complicated way on each molecule's basic composition, or "primary structure."
Biomolecules are too small to see in detail even with the most advanced light microscopes. The methods that structural biologists use to determine their structures generally involve measurements on vast numbers of identical molecules at the same time. These methods include:
Most often researchers use them to study the "native states" of macromolecules. But variations on these methods are also used to watch nascent or denatured molecules assume or reassume their native states. See protein folding.
A third approach that structural biologists take to understanding structure is bioinformatics to look for patterns among the diverse sequences that give rise to particular shapes. Researchers often can deduce aspects of the structure of integral membrane proteins based on the membrane topology predicted by hydrophobicity analysis. See protein structure prediction.
In the past few years it has become possible for highly accurate physical molecular models to complement the in silico study of biological structures. Examples of these models can be found in the Protein Data Bank.
* Description and images provided by Wikipedia under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license .
Matching Structural Biology Colleges
Indiana University-Bloomington
Four or more years; Public; $36,932 average out-state tuition; $9,913 average in-state tuition |
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Four or more years; Private not for profit |
Yeshiva University
Four or more years; Private not for profit; $44,300 average out-state tuition; $44,300 average in-state tuition |
University at Buffalo
Four or more years; Public; $24,990 average out-state tuition; $7,070 average in-state tuition |
Baylor College of Medicine
Four or more years; Private not for profit |
University of Washington-Seattle Campus
Four or more years; Public; $38,757 average out-state tuition; $10,927 average in-state tuition |
Scholarships for Structural Biology Majors
Edith Nourse Rogers STEM ScholarshipU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs |
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award Up to $30,000 |
deadline Varies |
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Jewel Scholars Program - Mount Mary CollegeMount Mary College |
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award $26,000 |
deadline Varies |
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SMART ScholarshipUnited States Department of Defense (DoD) |
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award Up to $38,000 |
deadline December 01, 2023 |
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Lumpkins Family Merit Scholarship in the College of ScienceUniversity of Notre Dame |
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award $25,000 |
deadline January 01, 2024 |
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Quantitative Biology Research Community (QBReC) FellowshipBrandeis University |
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award Up to $20,500 |
deadline January 01, 2024 |
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Bess Heflin FellowshipUniversity of Texas at Austin, Office of Graduate Studies |
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award $19,000 |
deadline Varies |
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UCF Astronaut ScholarshipUniversity of Central Florida (UCF) |
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award Up to $15,000 |
deadline October 31, 2023 |
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National Space Club Keynote ScholarshipNational Space Club |
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award $15,000 |
deadline December 04, 2023 |
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Alice P. Gast STEM ScholarshipLehigh University |
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award $12,500 |
deadline January 15, 2024 |
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SOLV Energy Women in Solar ScholarshipSolar Energy International (SEI) |
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award $10,000 |
deadline Varies |
Structural Biology Related Majors
- Biological and Biomedical Sciences
- Biochemistry
- Biomedical Sciences
- Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography
- Zoology/Animal Biology
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Neuroscience
- Biology
- Wildlife Biology
- Physiology
- Exercise Physiology and Kinesiology
- Pharmacology
- Biotechnology
- Genetics
- Molecular Biology
- Anatomy
- Neurobiology and Neurosciences
- Cell Biology and Anatomy
- Medical Microbiology and Bacteriology
- Human/Medical Genetics