Protein Folding: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

— We often think of proteins as nutrients in the food we eat or the main component of muscles, but proteins are also microscopic molecules inside of cells that perform diverse and vital jobs. With the Human Genome Project complete, scientists are turning their attention to the human “proteome,” the catalog of all human proteins. This work has shown that the world of proteins is a fascinating one, full of molecules with such intricate shapes and precise functions that they seem almost fanciful…