PROTEIN DESIGN - ON THE THRESHOLD OF FUNCTIONAL-PROPERTIES

The ultimate goal in protein de novo design is the creation of novel m acromolecules with tailor-made receptor; sensory, and catalytic functi ons. Despite considerable progress in understanding basic roles of sec ondary structure formation and protein stability, the well known prote in folding problem is still far from being solved and in general, only a limited number of designed proteins are folded uniquely. In this ar ticle the state-of-the-art in protein design is demonstrated on some s elected examples, indicating that the construction of protein-like mac romolecules mimicking some essential features of natural proteins seem s to be within reach. Thus, protein design and mimicry, has become an interdisciplinary challenge with most intriguing perspectives. (C) 199 8 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.