Biochemistry of protein synthesis What do you think happens when proteins are synthesized? Amino acids are joined together then folded to create a protein! A protein is actually formed by many small molecules called amino acids joining together. There are 20 common types of amino acids used to create proteins. Proteins Muscle contraction (actin and myosin) enzymes Antibodies hair (keratin) skin (collagen) Amino acids They're like little candy necklaces? how cute! and how delicious... These 20 types can be combined in different numbers and orders to create various types of proteins. Protein synthesis is carried out by ribosomes, which float in the cytoplasm or are stuck to the endoplasmic reticulum. a snowman? ribosome Although they look like little grains of rice, if we zoom in we can see that they have a strange shape. Actually, if we simplify it a bit, a ribosome looks a lot like a snowman.