X-Message-Number: 17193
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 10:50:46 -0400
From: William Gale <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #17175 Repair to cryo-damage
References: <>

> 
> >The problem: even the biggest supercomputer today can't solve that
> >problem of a single molecule.
> 
> Predicting how a proteine folds is not required for the repair job.

These are both true, but each is misleading.  Learning to predict
protein folding is break-through needed to really get on with
designing molecular machines.  That is because we can now form
any protein that can be coded with DNA.  When we can predict the
folding from the sequence, then we will be able to *design* a first
generation of machines.  These should allow us to develop a 
second genration that would be more robust (operate in a broader
temperature range) than the first generation.

Thus, while we cannot yet solve protein folding, it is almost
certainly on the critical path to nanotechnolgy, so if the our
whole enterprise works we can be fairly sure that it will have
been solved. And again, although solving protein folding 
is not required for repairing, per se, it is almost certainly
required to build the tools needed to do the repair.

Gale

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