Probing structure-function relationships of the DNA polymerase alpha-associated zinc-finger protein using computational approaches

Abstract

this paper is on one protein, we have applied this approach using a combination of theoretical and experimental data, guided by intuition, to attempt to predict structure/function relationships of three other proteins. These have produced similar results which are being used to guide experiments. This indicates that we have developed tools that, when used carefully in the hands of a structural biologist, can help elucidate function in a rational manner. In general, our work represents an important step of moving from pure prediction of structure to actually suggesting experiments to wet-lab biologists. As a result, there can be iterative improvement of our methodologies: as we codify the intuitions and heuristics we use, it may be possible to automate the function-prediction step further. 3.7 Availability of test sets and softwar