In the laboratory of Dr. William Sofer, PhD., Rutgers University Introduction Our lab is experimenting with the use of genetic algorithms to predict protein secondary structure.
Protein structure is important because it indicates the function of a protein.
We are discovering protein sequences faster than we can elucidate their structures due to recent advances in DNA technology, but computers can be used to compare sequences of unsolved proteins with sequences of solved proteins in order to make predictions. Genetic algorithms are a recently developed artificial intelligence method that duplicate the logic of evolution to evolve reasonabe statements from a set of known facts. Our program tests the usefulness of genetic algorithms in predicting protein structure by deriving sequences that have strong tendencies to form particular structures from a database of sequence-structure information, and we use the derived sequences that our genetic algorithm finds to predict structures of sequences that are unknown to the program. Why Structure Elucidation is Important Essentially, proteins serve as tools used by the cell to do work or as units that fit together for the construction of some larger assemblage such as hair or eye lens. In each of these capacities, what the protein does is what the shape of the protein is.