Structure-Function Modeling in Blood Coagulation: Interfaces, Biology and Chemistry

Abstract

Interfaces in biology can occur between any two biological substances, where the interface is defined as the boundary between two regions separated in matter or in space. These interfaces can occur at the macroscopic level, e.g. tissue-solid: surgical implants, dental adhesives; tissue-gas: skin, lung alveoli; cell-solution: blood cell membrane-blood; at the macromolecular level, e.g. antibody-antigen, enzyme-substrate, receptor-ligand, enzyme-solvent; and even at the submacromolecular level. Within a macromolecule, the submacromolecular interfaces involve protein secondary structures and/or protein structural domains and produce the protein’s tertiary structure. Thus these interfaces and their resulting influence on structure form the basis for defining the function of that macromolecule in its higher order interactions.