Who is this course for?

This tutorial is aimed at researchers, undergraduates, and clinicians who would like to use protein structures for their research, but do not know how to achieve this in practice. The content of this course provides an understanding of the fundamental concepts of protein structural biology, including protein composition, folding, architecture, dynamics, and interactions. Throughout the course, there may be terms used you are unfamiliar with. If so, please review the Glossary of terms for help.

This training module has been developed in collaboration with the Australian BioCommons and the Australian Structural Biology Computing community.

What will I achieve?

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• Describe the properties of amino acids, the peptide bond, and primary protein structure
• Explain how sequence relates to secondary protein structure, including alpha helixes and beta sheets
• Understand the forces that underpin these structures, and that protein structure impacts function (i.e. structure = function)
• Describe protein tertiary structure, including motifs, domains, and folds
• Explain how proteins fold and how their sequence can be modified post-translation
• Understand quaternary protein structure, and that proteins don’t work alone
• Describe why proteins are dynamic and flexible, and how this impacts function
• Explain protein-protein interactions, ligand-protein binding, and binding sites

DOI: TOL.foundations-protein-structure-t.2026.00001.1

Course contents

How and when to access the course

All our courses are designed with flexibility in mind. You can access them for free at any time, just click on the “Enter Course” button.

It is up to you how you use the course; you can either study the full course or you can focus on sections that are relevant to you. To jump between sections, use the navigation bar on the left or the arrows at the bottom of the page. You can also choose whether to complete the course in one go, or over several visits.

The average time to read through the main body of the course is 0.5 hours (not including exercises and external links). The time may vary depending on your prior knowledge and how you choose to work through the course.

Making the most of the course

Learning something new takes time and practice. We encourage you to:

• Use the activities and quizzes to help you check your learning, recall and apply key concepts. Look out for these icons:-

• Revisit sections as and when you need them. Bookmark relevant pages in your browser or use the navigation panel to jump the relevant section.

Getting help and providing feedback

If something isn’t working or if you have a question get in touch by contacting us at trainonline@ebi.ac.uk

Tell us what you thought about the course (both good and bad!) using the “Feedback and help” button found at the top of each page.

Your feedback helps us ensure we are providing training that is relevant and useful for you.

For help and support on EMBL-EBI resources you can contact the helpdesk directly.

Learn more

You can explore other training on offer from EMBL-EBI on our website. We offer online courses, webinars, face-to-face courses and offsite training.