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Thread: Proteins Fold in Steps

  1. #1

    Post Proteins Fold in Steps

    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.

  2. #2
    dismembered Scoofy12's Avatar
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    that's pretty interesting.
    My guess is that it doesnt really affect DF that much since we are concerned with WHAT the final structure is rather than HOW it got to be that way. F@H on the other hand, is concerned with exactly that; the folding process rather than the final shape.

  3. #3
    Reporters often tend to misinterpret or misunderstand scientific reports like this, and blow them out of proportions. I would have to read through the Science article to give you any fair opinion. Suffice it to say that it has been known for a long time that proteins fold following complex pathways, and every protein folds in a different way - some 2-state and some not.

    As pointed out, since we are basically searching for the native state only, this really has no impact on our method. It is more of a glimpse into understanding HOW proteins might fold. This is indeed similar to what F@H is doing. But again, they are using physics to model protein folding, and if the physics is sufficiently accurate, it should reproduce what happens in nature, and help explain it.
    Howard Feldman

  4. #4
    As always, thanks for clearing that up, Howard.

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