2001年诺贝尔化学奖获得者Kurt Wüthrich教授
结构生物学能给蛋白功能解析和新药开发提供重要的依据和思路，这点许多人都知道。那么结构生物学的原理是否有其他有用和有趣的应用和发现呢？Kurt Wüthrich教授在八月二日的首场讲演中，提到了这么一件有趣的事，显示科学的滥用和科学的威力。Kurt Wüthrich教授说，现在运动竞技界，丑闻不断，作弊多多。其中使用兴奋剂，越来越巧妙，越来越隐蔽。可谓道高一尺，魔高一丈。
现代奥林匹克运动会，对EPO等生物技术药物作为兴奋剂已经不太见怪了，检测手段相当先进可靠。但罗氏开发了一种PEG化的EPO让科学家检测时，一直没有找到好办法。于是本来用来作为长效EPO治疗贫血和化疗后等症状或疾病用的，在运动界却被有人用来提高运动成绩作弊用的兴奋剂。在去年北京奥运会时，当时的兴奋剂检测水平还无法检查出这种特殊的EPO。于是奥委会主席罗斯先生要求将所有参赛运动员的血样均作冷冻保存，同时要求攻克检测PEG化的EPO的有效方法。Kurt Wüthrich教授告诉我们，经过蛋白结构生物学家和分析技术专家的努力，如今PEG化的EPO的检测已经不成问题，而且已经成为奥林匹克的必检项目。奥委会对700多名可疑对象的运动员进行了逐一检查，已经发现奥运会5000米冠军，摩洛哥中长跑运动血液中检出PEG化的EPO，而被剥夺金牌。这是科学的进步，再度战胜侥幸作弊者的又一案例。
Kurt Wüthrich简介：
Kurt Wüthrich, 2002 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Switzerland A first focus of our research is on the use of NMR. We develop and apply NMR methods for the screening of recombinant protein preparations for folded globular domains. NMR structure determination of selected proteins from the proteomes under study is another important aspect of our activities in the structural genomics programs. A second research focus is investigations relating to the protein folding problem. These include structural characterization of polypetide chains in denaturing solution milieus, and studies on chaperone-mediated folding pathways of globular proteins.
Kurt Wüthrich shares his time between the positions of Professor of Biophysics at the ETH Zürich, and Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Professor of Structural Biology at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, CA, USA (Kurt Wüthrich Group at TSRI). He is also the Deputy Director and a Principal Investigator in the Zürich-based National Center of Competence in Research Structural Biology (NCCR Structural Biology). His research interests are in molecular structural biology, protein science and structural genomics. His specialty is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with biological macromolecules in solution.