About cookies on this site Our websites require some cookies to function properly (required). In addition, other cookies may be used with your consent to analyze site usage, improve the user experience and for advertising. For more information, please review your options. By visiting our website, you agree to our processing of information as described in IBM’sprivacy statement. To provide a smooth navigation, your cookie preferences will be shared across the IBM web domains listed here.
Abstract
Increased understanding of the biological principles of protein structure and folding, combined with advances in protein-synthetic chemistry, should not only allow us to borrow from biology but also to depart from it and so produce protein-like, but non-protein, molecules and molecular devices. However, radical departures from protein-like forms into more-robust and truly novel 'smart' polymers and materials first require a solution to the protein-folding problem using only fundamental physicochemical principles. Any such practical solution may not come from raw computing power alone but rather from a deeper understanding of topological principles. Copyright (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.