CHAPTER 6 



Big Molecules 



(Structure of Macromolecules and Living Membranes; 



Isomers and Multiplets; 



Codes and Molecular Diseases) 



A score of diseases (including sickle cell anaemia and phenylketonuria) 

 have so far been recognized as enzyme diseases, presumably resulting from 

 the manufacture of abnormal molecules in place of active enzyme molecules. 

 I think that it is not unlikely that there are hundreds or thousands of such 

 diseases. 



I foresee the day when many of these diseases will be treated by the use of 

 artificial enzymes .... When our understanding of enzyme activity becomes 

 great enough, it will be possible to synthesize a catalyst, etc 



Thus did Linus Pauling emphasize to an international sym- 

 posium of enzymologists in Chicago, in 1956, the relationship 

 between the structure of the macromolecule and its chemical and 

 physical roles in the living system. 



INTRODUCTION 



The structure of macromolecules and of arrays of them in living mem- 

 branes and other tissues has occupied the attention of an important class of 

 biophysicists for the past ten years. Using modern rapid-flow, quick-freeze- 

 drying, and micromanipulation techniques, and armed with the phase and 



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