  In the Kirchhoff model of a biopolymer, conformation dynamics can be
described in terms of solitary waves, for certain special cross-section
asymmetries. Applying this to the problem of electron transport, we show that
the quantum effective potential arising due to the bends and twists of the
polymer enables us to formalize and quantify the concept of a {\it conformon}
that has been hypothesized in biology. Its connection to the soliton solution
of the cubic nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation emerges in a natural fashion.
