title: Modeling protein folding: the beauty and power of simplicity.
abstract: It is argued that simplified models capture key features of protein stability and folding, whereas more detailed models may be more appropriate for protein structure prediction. A brief overview of experimental and theoretical results is presented that corroborates these points. I argue that statistical models capture the key principle of protein stability-cooperativity- and therefore provide a reasonable estimate of protein free energy whereas more detailed but less physically transparent calculations fail to do so. I also explain that the previously published claim that simple models give predictions that are inconsistent with experiments on polypeptide block-copolymers is based on incomplete analysis of such experiment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. eugene@diamond.harvard.edu
authors.forename: E I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Shakhnovich
mesh_terms: D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D008956:Models, Chemical; D015233:Models, Statistical; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D015202:Protein Engineering; D017510:Protein Folding; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins