Physics in protein folding and molecular motors

Abstract

Protein plays a major role in living cells and defects in protein structures can lead to critical diseases for human beings. However, since protein is a complex bio-polymer system, the physics of protein, especially protein folding and molecular motors is still poorly explored anymore. Recent breakthrough to physics at atomic level and micro-biology allows physicists to explore biological objects such as proteins in an effective way. Here, we review fundamental physics principles of motion of molecular motors and protein folding including protein interactions, structures, and its free energy. It resolves the relationship between these contributions to help physics students understand the human diseases caused by the defects of protein folding.