Ode to the Code

In the land of the Cell, where the proteins all play,
They fold and they bend in a wiggly way.
But sometimes a protein gets stuck in a clump,
Like a sad, tangled pile in a messy old dump!
Then out comes Hsp70, a hero so grand,
The finest of chaperones in all of the land!
He grabs hold of tangles with a "Zip!" and a "Zat!"
But how does it know just to do this or that?
The scientists looked with a curious gaze,
At the chaperone's complex and wandering ways.
"It’s a Code!" they exclaimed, with a skip and a hop,
"A secret that tells when to start and to stop!"
You see, on the chaperone, tiny and small,
Are PTMs—tags hanging onto the wall.
A phosphate! A methyl! An acetyl too!
They tell the Hsp70 just what he must do.
"Does he fold it?" they asked. "Or toss it away?"
"Does he help it to work? Or go out to play?"
The Chaperone Code is the map and the guide,
For all of the secrets the proteins can hide.
With a Phospho-tag here and a S-nitrosyl there,
They manage the proteins with logic and care.
If the code is misread, or the tags are all wrong,
The Cell cannot sing its happy Cell song!
So cheers to the Lab and the work that they do,
Decoding the messages, shiny and new.
For thanks to the study of molecular light,
Our proteins are folding and feeling alright!