Hemoglobin's Moving Around
(To the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town")
MP₃ HERE
Copyright © 2006 Kevin Ahern

I am very pleased that Tim Karplus has made a professional recording of this song (more to come!). A downloadable MP3 of this song can be downloaded HERE and others can be downloaded HERE. You will need to unzip the file to release the MP3. This song is also contained on the new Metabolic Melodies CD available for sale HERE.

Oh isn't it great
What proteins can do
Especially ones that bind to O₂
Hemoglobin's moving around

Inside of the lungs
It picks up the bait
And changes itself from T to R state
Hemoglobin's moving around

The proto-porphyrin system
Its iron makes such a scene
Arising when an O₂ binds
Pulling up on histidine

The binding occurs
Cooperatively
Thanks to changes qua-ter-nar-y
Hemoglobin's moving around

It exits the lungs
Engorged with O₂
In search of a working body tissue
Hemoglobin's moving around

The proton concentration
Is high and has a role
Between the alpha betas
It finds imidazole

To empty their loads
The globins decree
"We need to bind 2,3BPG"
Hemoglobin's moving around

The stage is thus set
For grabbing a few
Cellular dumps of CO₂
Hemoglobin's moving around

And then inside the lungs it
Discovers ox-y-gen
And dumps the CO₂ off
To start all o'er agin

So see how this works
You better expect
To have to describe the Bohr effect
Hemoglobin's moving around