4 ms·
We can already determine how a few proteins fold by experimental work. Where "a few" is around 0.1% of the known 180 million proteins. So a relative few and a
by btilly 6y ago
We can already determine how a few proteins fold by experimental work.
Where "a few" is around 0.1% of the known 180 million proteins. So a relative few and a whole lot.
But the catch is which proteins could we figure out by experiment, and which not. In particular membrane proteins are hard to experimentally determine. But knowing how they fold is very important for figuring out how to get things to react with or get through membranes such as cell walls. Which is an important problem for everything from understanding how viruses work to targeted delivery of drugs. We now have a way to find those structures.