Searching for near-exact protein models

该项目旨在开发新颖高效的启发式算法，从而获得接近准确的蛋白质三级结构模型。关于蛋白质结构的知识是我们理解生命系统的基础。这些结构的实验测定进展非常有限，在分子生物学中仍然是一个开放的挑战。从序列中计算蛋白质结构的预测是一种很有前途的方法，但其准确性远不能令人满意。本项目开发的软件系统将用于药物设计中靶蛋白的结构鉴定。这将使药物设计过程更有效率，节省时间和成本，可能挽救生命。

This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising approach, but its accuracy is far from satisfactory. The software systems developed in this project will be used in structural identification of target proteins in drug design. This will make drug design process more efficient, saving time and cost, potentially saving lives.