The problem of determining the three-dimensional structure of a protein when the linear sequence of amino acids that identify the protein is known. Protein folding is the process, lasting a few tens of milliseconds, by which a protein evolves to this structure (termed its natural conformation) from an amino acid chain so that it can achieve its biological function (e.g., as an enzyme that repairs and replicates DNA, as a contractile element like myosin in muscle, or as a hormone such as insulin that regulates glucose metabolism). Errors in protein folding are thought to the main causes of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s, and possibly implicated in some developmental disorders. Resolving the problem is one of the biggest challenges currently facing biology, and is a major area of research in bioinformatics where use is made of computational models.
See Alzheimer’s disease, Amino acids, Bio-X project, Bioinformatics, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), Endplasmic reticulum (ER), Glycoproteins, Hormones, Huntington’s disease, Molecular biology, Myosin, Peptides, Prion (proteinaceous infectious particle), Proteins