Overview
Current status of protein structure prediction
Predicting a protein's structure from its amino acid sequence is a 'holy grail' for the structural biology community. In spite of decades of effort, it remains an extremely difficult problem both because the folded three dimensional structure of a protein is complicated and because the structure is defined by many degrees of freedom. In this chapter, we will cover the basic of the energetics of protein structure, as they explain why a protein folds. We will also describe the general principles of homology modeling, and of ab initio protein structure prediction.
All theoretical and computational approaches must be validated by testing. For truly objective assessment, one needs a system of blind prediction. 12 years ago, such a scheme was devised by John Moult who initiated the CASP meetings. We will give a brief history of CASP.
Homology modeling
