Unraveling Protein-Protein Interactions

Courtesy of Adrian Arakaki

THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THERE COMPLEXES: Digging up protein-protein interactions with MULTIPROSPECTOR.

Using a computer instead of a pipette, Jeffrey Skolnick contemplates the subtle forces that bring proteins together. His first computational forays helped decipher the quaternary structure of proteins--the interactions between subunits in molecules such as tropomyosin. Now Skolnick, executive director of the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, Buffalo, NY, works on a far bigger problem: understanding, modeling, and predicting the currently unfathomable rules of etiquette that govern protein alliances inside the cell on a genomic scale. "When you look inside a cell, it's not like you are looking at an isolated individual trapped on a desert island," he says. "It's more like a crowded party on New Year's Eve."

A party of proteins, that is. And understanding what those proteins are doing involves much more than simply reading the guest list. That's because...