Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Protein Composition: Translating Amino Acid Sequences Into Music, Melody Campbell

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Proteins are composed of individual building blocks (amino acids) assembled in a chain, resembling beads on a string. This string – or sequence of amino acids – folds into a unique three-dimensional shape to form a fully functional protein. In nature, there are 20 different naturally occurring amino acids. I assigned specific musical chords to each different amino acid and arranged the chords sequentially in an order that mirrored the sequence of amino acids. The resulting composition contains a pattern of chords representative of the protein’s amino acid sequence. For example, if Glycine (one of the 20 natural amino acids) …