X-Message-Number: 17276 From: Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 04:59:44 EDT Subject: Re: CryoNet #17193 protein repair From: W. Gale: << >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. Yes, I agree. And this will implies very poverful computer, well beyond the possibilities of classical system, at least as they are understood now. >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 I am not convinced that repair itself don't need the solving of protein folding. There is one good folding for each protein, but there may be many ways to denaturate it. To get from the n-th denaturated state to the active one will need to pass through a full set of intermediate states, each will request a particular enzyme to make the useful local folding. You can't have a molecule for each potential case to be encountered, so you need a nano device able to take the requested shape on order. You may have a library of precomputed shapes, but the simplest way to respond to all cases is to compute each shape when it is requested. Y. Bozzonetti. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17276