What lies beyond uranus? Preconceptions, ignorance, serendipity and suppressors in the search for biology's secrets.

摘要

DISULFIDE bonds in proteins-how these bonds are formed, how they are cleaved, and how they participate in protein folding-have become my passion over the past 25 years. During this period, the discoveries in my lab in this very biochemical realm have come largely from genetic approaches. Many factors have influenced the pace of our progress, including at times ignorance of certain biochemical dogma and at other times unreflective adherence to such dogma. We have been impelled by the conviction that well-thought-out genetic approaches can yield insights into how processes of protein chemistry occur in a living cell. Yet, despite our carefully constructed "rational" approaches, serendipity, a workhorse of science, has consistently led us in unexpected directions.