Nirosha (Narosha/Nirosha) Murugan (guest/researcher)

It's as simple.

That's the fundamental basis of biomolecular interactions.

But thinking about all that for that one specific molecule to find that perfect receptor just seemed like it was too easy.

It finds it.

So that's exactly, that's the model that didn't sit well with me.

So imagine you're one of those like janitors with like a big ring of keys.

How do you find that right key for the right lock in that right amount of time to induce signaling?

You got to go through all those keys.

You got to try, iterate through random probability and get the right shape in the right space.

Correct.

This is what I was like uncomfortable with is...

Think of that time and think of the probability of you finding your shape in one thousandth of a second.

Yeah, exactly.

And that's just like one interaction.

And so if you kind of break it down that way, and that's what I learned in school, things weren't adding up.

There's something missing.

There had to be something else to induce signaling inside of a cell.

So my advanced immunology teacher in grad school, I, after class, went up to him and I was like, well, how does that lock and key model make sense?

Think of the time and the probability.

And I asked him that question.