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For Darwin Day, Topoisomerase Webinar With Biochemist Joe Deweese

Image source: Discovery Institute.

How will you celebrate Darwin Day, this Saturday, marking the birthday of Charles Darwin? Here’s an idea: Join us here for a webinar examining the wonders of topoisomerase II, an extremely important enzyme in your cells that is designed to untangle knots and supercoils in DNA strands that arise during replication and transcription. It does this by grabbing two tangled DNA segments, holding one steady while it breaks the other segment in two, and then passing the first segment through the break. The second segment is then reconnected, and the two DNA segments are released, having been successfully untangled. Without topoisomerases, chromosomes would become an impossible mess, making DNA replication, transcription, and cell duplication impossible.

The carefully orchestrated untangling activity of topoisomerase II doesn’t happen by accident. This enzyme is a molecular machine that only works because its amino acid sequence is highly specified to provide a special shape and structure necessary for its function. In other words, topoisomerase enzymes contain high levels of complex and specified information — a hallmark of intelligent design.

New Molecular Machine Animation

This webinar will premiere a new molecular machine animation on the topoisomerase enzyme. If you haven’t already, make sure to watch the previous molecular animations on our YouTube channel. The webinar will feature a Q&A with a topoisomerase researcher, Professor Joe Deweese, a biochemist at Freed-Hardeman University, to talk about his own research and the amazing design of this enzyme. Deweese will be interviewed by Casey Luskin, Associate Director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, for further details on this magnificent process. Concluding the interview, webinar attendees will have nearly 30 minutes to ask questions of Deweese and Luskin regarding the topoisomerase enzyme.

Join us on Saturday, February 12, at 10 am PT (1 pm ET) for what should be a superb interview! The webinar is free, so register today!