System Biology and Protein Structure Prediction by Computer

In the twenty-first century, whole-genome sequencing has become possible, and the amino acid sequence of all proteins can be revealed by genome sequences. If the functional dynamics of proteins can be written in equations, it should be possible to write all biological reactions in equations. It is based on this idea that the discipline of systems biology was established. However, it is very difficult to completely formulate the dynamics of protein function, even for a single molecule. Therefore, research has been conducted in the direction of understanding the characteristics of system behavior by narrowing down the objectives and eliminating nonessential parameters. Another direction of theoretical research is the prediction of protein tertiary structure. Bottom-up biological research requires knowledge of the function of all proteins. Therefore, the prediction of the tertiary structure of proteins, which is deeply related to their functions, has been attempted for a long time. In recent years, it has become possible to predict structures with high accuracy.