Tag Archives: free energy

Folding Funnels Key to Biomimicry

Berkeley Lab Finding that Protein Folding Funnels Also Apply to Self-Assembly Should Benefit Biomimicry and Nanosynthesis

Proteins are able to self-assemble into a wide range of highly ordered structures that feature a diverse array of properties. Through biomimicry – technological innovation inspired by nature – humans hope to emulate proteins and produce our own version of self-assembling molecules. A key to accomplishing this is understanding how protein-folding – a process critical to the form and function of a protein – is extended from individual proteins to complex assemblies.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have now shown that a concept widely accepted as describing the folding of a single individual protein is also applicable to the self-assembly of multiple proteins. Their findings provide important guidelines for future biomimicry efforts, particularly for device fabrication and nanoscale synthesis. (more…)

Read More