Affiliation:
1. Escuela de Ingeniería de Bilbao (Spain)
Abstract
Proteins are the macromolecules responsible for almost every function living organisms need to exist. These macromolecules, which resemble small mechanisms or robots, were discovered 200 years ago, and first seen in their functional form less than 60 years ago, and they represent one of the more challenging areas of study. Protein study is an incredibly rich and multidisciplinary field, as it needs to be studied from different areas such as biology, physics or engineering. Current research involves great challenges since we are far from understanding how does the interaction between atoms work and the actual technology limitations represent a big obstacle when trying to understand how these nature robots operate. In this paper, a brief state of the art of the methodologies aimed at the study of protein folding or molecular mechanism simulation is presented. The paper is specifically focussed on procedures closely related to engineering and mechanism and machine study, without forgetting some classic methodologies which help understanding the global state of the art.
Keywords: proteins, structure, biokinematics, mechanisms