Proteins are the basis of how biology gets things done.
As enzymes , they are the driving force behind all of the biochemical reactions which makes biology work. As antibodies , they recognize invading elements and allow the immune system to get rid of the unwanted invaders. Since proteins play such fundamental roles in biology, scientists have sequenced the human genome . However, only knowing this sequence tells us little about what the protein does and how it does it. One of our project goals is to simulate protein folding in order to understand how proteins fold so quickly and reliably, and to learn how to make synthetic polymers with these properties.