Folding Algorithms for Protein Structure Prediction
Speaker: Phil Bradley , University of Washington, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Date: February 23 2004
Time: 4:15PM to 5:30PM
Location: 2-105
Host: P Clote- BC/ B Berger- MIT CSAIL
Contact: Kathleen Dickey, 617 253 3037, kvdickey@mit.edu
Relevant URL: http://www-math.mit.edu/compbiosem/To reach their biologically active state, newly synthesized proteins spontaneously fold from an extended, linear conformation into a compact three-dimensional structure.
This remarkable self-assembly process, protein folding, is guided by the amino acid sequence of the protein to a unique final state. Despite several decades of intensive study the process by which sequence determines structure is still not well understood; in particular it is not currently possible to predict a protein's native three-dimensional structure given only its sequence. Recently, however, a class of prediction algorithms based on protein fragment assembly have made considerable headway towards the goal of generating low-resolution structure predictions. In this talk I will introduce the protein folding problem, describe these new algorithms, highlight their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss current research directed at improving the reliability and accuracy of their predictions.
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