![]() The biennial Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP) protein-folding challenge, a blind competition held since 1994, has monitored and facilitated this progress. Numerous approaches have been explored over the past several decades, but historically, progress has occurred in short bursts with long phases of stagnation. Computational researchers have always believed that a theoretical approach to solving the ‘protein folding problem’ would be feasible given a sequence of amino acids - the building blocks of proteins - and sufficient understanding of their biochemical and biophysical behavior. Solving structures experimentally is a slow and laborious process, and despite recent method advances, especially in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), it remains challenging. The 3D shape of a protein dictates its biological function and provides vital information for potentially altering it to provide useful biotechnology tools or modulating its function.
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