zlacker

>>MindGo+(OP)
Can someone put AlphaFold's problem space into perspective for me?

Why is protein folding important? Theoretical importance? Can we do something with protein folding knowledge? If so, what?

I've been hearing about AlphaFold from the CS side. There they seem to focus on protein folding primarily as an interesting space to apply their CS efforts.

>>dalbas+l7
The genome, all of our DNA combined, is just a bunch of 1D strings like "cgtattctgcttgta". Those strings encode proteins, which fold up into a 3D shape once created. This 3D shape is what determines what the protein actually does inside the cell. Without understanding protein folding we don't understand what the DNA actually does.