Proteins also constantly change, folding themselves into new shapes depending on what the cell is doing. This folding can be almost instantaneous, happening in a mere millionth of a second. Understanding the proteome the full set of proteins for an organism is a daunting task, but the potential rewards are great. Most modern medicines, for example, are either proteins or work by binding to proteins. In agriculture, a better understanding of how proteins work could lead to the development of crops with increased frost and drought tolerance, or a host of other valuable traits.
Researchers use a range of tools to study and catalogue proteins.
One of the most valuable is the computer, which can be used to store vast databases of protein information, as well as to analyze this data. Modelling programs can also help predict how a protein will fold under various conditions. Using this information, researchers can learn the shape of each protein and get an idea of what it does. Protein research on your home computer One of the great challenges of proteomics is the vast quantity of information that scientists have to handle. Even powerful and expensive supercomputers can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that must be processed.