Proteins.

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• Importance/Functions of proteins
• Protein Structure
  • Primary
  • Secondary
  • Tertiary
  • Quaternary

• Primary
• Secondary
• Tertiary
• Quaternary
• Supermolecular structure

Importance/Function of Proteins:

Proteins: Proteins are  large polymers of amino acids. Proteins have a number of extremely important functions for the organism and take many diverse forms the structure of which we are still trying to understand. Indeed one of the important problems in modern computing is the development of methods to allow us to predict how a protein will fold into its three dimensional structure when placed in water.

• Enzymes. Just about all chemical reactions in the cell require the use of enzymes or organic catalysts that make the chemical reactions happen more easily than they otherwise would have.
• Structure and movement. The movement of your muscles and the structure of the cells of your body depend on complex molecular assemblies.
• Hormones and other messenger proteins. Certain hormones such as insulin are proteins and the cell relies in part on messenger proteins to regulate the functioning of the cell.
• Carrier proteins. Proteins such as hemoglobin transport substances through the body. For instance hemoglobin is involved in transport of oxygen. Other proteins are involved in carrying electrons or transporting substances across cell membranes.
• Receptor proteins. The surfaces of cells typically have special proteins that receive information from the cell's environment. For instance, on the surfaces of nerve cells, special chemicals called neurotransmitters attach to protein receptors and cause the nerve cell to generate an electrical signal.
• Recognition. In most animals, proteins called the MHC proteins enable cells to recognize one another. These proteins are an important component of the immune system which by the way involves another important set of proteins called antibodies.
• Proteins are extremely diverse and the important role of proteins comes about in part because there are so many different types of proteins. Here's a challenge: Given the fact that there are 20 amino acids typically used by the cell, how different proteins 10 amino acids long can in theory be made? Hint the answer is a big number! Once you have the answer, next consider that the typical protein has hundreds of amino acids!
   

If you want to learn how cells make proteins go here.