My favorite papers


A compilation of papers I find engaging, illuminating, groundbreaking, or even just funny.
  1. Šali, A.; Shakhnovich, E.; Karplus, M. Kinetics of Protein Folding: A Lattice Model Study of the Requirements for Folding to the Native State. Journal of Molecular Biology 1994, 235 (5), 1614–1636.

    A beautifully simple yet descriptive model which yields deep insight into the behavior of protein folding.

  2. Gresser, M. J.; Myers, J. A.; Boyer, P. D. Catalytic Site Cooperativity of Beef Heart Mitochondrial F1 Adenosine Triphosphatase. Correlations of Initial Velocity, Bound Intermediate, and Oxygen Exchange Measurements with an Alternating Three-Site Model. Journal of Biological Chemistry 1982, 257 (20), 12030–12038.

    A tour-de-force of classical biochemical kinetics.

  3. Pauling, Linus. The Nature of the Chemical Bond. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1931, 53 (4), 1367–1400.

    Probably the paper one could accurately describe as the birth of chemistry yet eminently readable and precise in its conceptual framework.

  4. Frauenfelder, H.; Sligar, S. G.; Wolynes, P. G. The Energy Landscapes and Motions of Proteins. Science 1991, 254 (5038), 1598–1603.
  5. Lazebnik, Yuri. Can a biologist fix a radio? Cancer Cell. 2002, 179-182.

    Despite its provocative title, I really like the author's ideas on the limits of current biological approaches and how we might supersede them (systems biology??)

  6. Chen, F.; Tillberg, P. W.; Boyden, E. S. Expansion Microscopy. Science 2015, 347 (6221), 543–548.

    Why get better microscopes to see small things when you can just make small things bigger?

  7. Hodgkin, A. L.; Huxley, A. F. A Quantitative Description of Membrane Current and Its Application to Conduction and Excitation in Nerve. J Physiol 1952, 117 (4), 500–544.

    The last of Hodgkin and Huxley's classic series of papers where they both explain the phenomenology of an action potential and lay the groundwork for decades of fascinating electrophysiology.


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Last updated May 26, 2021.