protein folding problem

Cultural  

1. One of the main unsolved problems in molecular biology, the protein folding problem deals with the question of predicting the three-dimensional shape of a protein molecule from the sequence of amino acids that make up the protein molecules. The main difficulty arises from the large number of interactions between different atoms in a protein molecule, a number that lies outside of the ability of modern computers to handle. (See also protein structure and proteomics.)

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Example Sentences

DeepMind, a lab owned by the same parent company as Google, said on Monday that its system, called AlphaFold, had solved what is known as “the protein folding problem.”

From New York Times

Their latest version provides a powerful, if imperfect, solution to the protein folding problem, said the DeepMind research scientist Kathryn Tunyasuvunakool.

From New York Times

Venki Ramakrishnan, a structural biologist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, calls the result “a stunning advance on the protein folding problem.”

From Science Magazine

The protein folding problem asks a straightforward question: Can you predict the physical structure of a protein — its shape in three dimensions?

From New York Times

Tackling a biological puzzle they call “the protein folding problem,” they try to predict the three-dimensional shape of proteins in the human body.

From New York Times