title: Binding site comparison for function prediction and pharmaceutical discovery.
abstract: While structural genomics resulted in thousands of new protein crystal structures, we still do not know the functions of most of these proteins. One reason for this shortcoming is their unique sequences or folds, which leaves them assigned as proteins of 'unknown function'. Recent advances in and applications of cutting edge binding site comparison algorithms for binding site detection and function prediction have begun to shed light on this problem. Here, we review these algorithms and their use in function prediction and pharmaceutical discovery. Finding common binding sites in weakly related proteins may lead to the discovery of new protein functions and to novel ways of drug discovery.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Janez
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Konc
authors.affiliation: University of Primorska, Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, Koper, Slovenia. Electronic address: dusanka.janezic@upr.si.
authors.forename: Dušanka
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Janežič
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins