NY pilot study pushes Human Genome Project toward cures f...( e vital functions necessary for life to...)

e vital functions necessary for life to exist. Proteins, long chains of building blocks called amino acids that fold into compact but flexible shapes, carry out virtually all of lifes essential functions through chemical reactions. Their structures are determined by the order of the amino acids, which is prescribed by the genes carrying instructions for making the proteins.

"In architecture, it is said that form follows function -- you begin with a purpose that dictates the style and shape of a structure," Sali says. "In structural biology, function follows form, because the shape of a protein is the very definition of what task it performs."

It would take decades to determine every three-dimensional structure of every protein encoded by the human genome, and this undertaking would yield many of the same shapes over and over. Because of this, the scientists suggest focusing primarily on disease-related proteins.

As the scientists explained in a commentary published in the journal Nature Genetics, focusing on these "likely suspects" will bring a quicker payoff. Such an approach is possible only through dramatic advances in computational biology -- most notably, specially designed software that finds all the protein -- coding regions in a genome and also allows researchers to use structural and biochemical information to understand protein function.

The scientists say that choosing medically relevant protein targets will provide benefits whether its folds are "new" (i.e., different from those in other proteins already solved) or "old," and whether its function is already known or is unknown. They also think choosing these targets will have important consequences for disease and patient-oriented research:

• First, any newly determined structure will be of immediate relevance to academic and/or industrial research teams studying that biological system.

• Second, by publicizing target lists on the Internet, the structural genomics pilot st
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Contact: Joe Bonner or Jim Stallard
bonnerj@rockvax.rockefeller.edu
212-327-7900
Rockefeller University
19-Feb-2000


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