An International Conference: Computational Mathematics

研究者在法国高等科学研究所组织了一次国际会议，研究大分子的折叠和自组装。大分子的自组织是分子生物学中的一个基本问题。分子如何折叠在其组织中起着重要作用。这次会议将来自不同领域的科学家聚集在一起，从不同的角度考虑这个问题，从而促进了新工具的创造。DNA就像一条长长的拉链，它的牙齿是一对分子，叫做碱基对，拉链的两边各有一个分子。碱基对之间的连接合上拉链。在人类DNA中，拉链大约有6英尺长；为了适应细胞，它卷起来。它部分展开，露出部分基因，这些基因被读取以产生一种中间分子，称为信使RNA。核糖体读取信使RNA并产生相应的氨基酸链。链条自动折叠起来；这是一种蛋白质。反过来，蛋白质通过部分展开与其他折叠的大分子相互作用来发挥其功能。蛋白质、基因和DNA都可以折叠展开来完成它们的工作。折叠和自组装是分子生物学的核心问题。会议的目标是通过将生物学家、化学家、物理学家、数学家和计算机科学家聚集在一起，从不同的角度讨论这些问题，促进不同学科之间的协同交流。

The investigator organizes an international conference atInstitut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques to study folding andself-assembly of macromolecules. Self-organization ofmacromolecules is a fundamental question in molecular biology.How molecules fold plays a major role in their organization. Themeeting fosters the creation of new tools by bringing togetherscientists from several domains to consider the problem fromdifferent perspectives. DNA is like a long zipper whose teeth are pairs ofmolecules, called base pairs, one molecule on each side of thezipper. Links between the base pairs close the zipper. The zipperis about six feet long in human DNA; to fit inside a cell, itcoils up. It partially uncoils to expose sections --- genes ---that are read to produce an intermediate molecule, calledmessenger RNA. Ribosomes read the messenger RNA and produce acorresponding amino acid chain. The chain folds up spontaneously;this is a protein. Proteins in turn perform their functions bypartially unfolding to interact with other folded macromolecules.Proteins, genes, and DNA all fold and unfold to do their work. Sofolding and self-assembly are central issues in molecularbiology. A goal of the conference is to stimulate synergisticinterchanges between different disciplines by bringing togetherbiologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and computerscientists to discuss these issues from different perspectives.