For our project, we have decided to use the Folding@home distributed computing site. http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Main According to the site, their goal is "to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases." Proteins play many integral roles in our survival. As enzymes, they drive many biochemical reactions. As structural elements, they make up our bones, muscles, skin, hair, and blood vessels. They also function in the immune system as antibodies. To be functional as a protein, a string of amino acids must fold itself into a correct 3-D structure. Protein misfolding is believed to be the basis for many diseases. The website is geared towards understanding the proteins implicated in Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's Disease, cancer (including p53), Osteogenesis imperfecta, Parkinson's, and those targeted by antibiotics, specifically ribosomes. Each disease is described in the page http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-Diseases Our group is interested in learning more about the bacterial ribosome which is targeted by antibiotics. The initial picture is of a ribosome. It is from the above site.
