  All Documents and Media  "Molecular Disease Lectures"
"Molecular Disease Lectures" November 1970.  Biological
Specificity Research at Caltech. (1:52)  Get the Flash Player to
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Computer   Linus Pauling: Well I think we have an understanding
of the molecular basis of biological specificity. Why do people
become allergic to strawberries, say, or to milk, or something
like that? This is the same subject.  The antibodies are protein
molecules which have a region which is complimentary in
structure to the antigen. For example, the benzene arsonic acid,
a group that Landsteiner was fond of working with. We were able
to show that the antibody molecule, the atoms in the antibody
molecule, fit around this group, the heptanic group, very
closely to within about a quarter of an atomic diameter, on the
average, and that they bring into juxtaposition groups that are
complimentary to certain groups in the heptan.  For example, an
electron pair donating- hydroge