I found an article dealing with how proteins fold (or, were thought how to fold). Although this article is about a month old, I just came across it today. Here is an excerpt:

University of Maryland Team Reports Major Breakthrough in Study of Proteins
COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- A team of researchers at the University of Maryland has observed for the first time how some proteins, the chains of amino acids that control every function in living cells, come together in a stepwise manner. What they saw may totally change the way scientists look at proteins.

As reported in the Dec. 13 issue of the journal "Science," the Maryland team saw a protein take shape, a process called folding, in a series of steps, not one sudden motion, as had long been assumed to be the folding process.


The full article can be read here.

I'm wondering if this would have any impact on the new algorithm Howard is working on, or even the entire DF project itself.