Protein Folding and Functional Dynamics

Proteins are intrinsically flexible and dynamic objects. Thus, protein dynamics are intimately coupled to their function. In many cases, however, it is difficult to directly probe protein conformational dynamics occurring on either very fast or very slow timescales with high spatial resolution. In this talk, several examples will be discussed to show how ensemble and single-molecule spectroscopic methods can be used to follow protein folding events taking place on the nanosecond timescale and slow conformational dynamics associated with function.