All the pieces are there, and they're in the right sequence. Yet the new protein is unfit for duty. It isn't in shape. It happens within seconds, a long time in protein biochemistry, and the result is a complex bundle of twists and turns with clefts and notches precisely sculpted to allow the protein to attach and release other molecules.
Function follows from form, and when the form is right, the protein goes to work.
For biomedical scientists, this phenomenon poses the kind of mystery science thrives on. It's called the protein-folding problem, and solving it is no mere intellectual exercise. In theory, knowing the biological laws that govern protein folding could make it possible to create new proteins made to order to cure diseases and abate maladies from indigestion to arthritis. In a series of very large-scale simulations on the CRAY C90, Brooks has explored protein folding in apomyoglobin, a partially unfolded form of myoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen in muscle tissue.