Computational Studies in Analysis and Prediction of Protein Properties
A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomolecular Crystals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2020) | Viewed by 10860
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Proteins are macromolecules essential for biological life. They play many critical roles in countless biological processes, for instance, they are involved in DNA replication, catalysis and regulation of biochemical reactions and networks, metabolic pathways, active transport of molecules, signaling process, the photosynthetic conversion of light in plants, and so on. Protein function and properties can be understood in terms of its three-dimensional structure. Establishing a protein structure–function relationship is crucial for understanding its biological function. Experimental techniques (e.g., X-Ray, NMR, SAXS, and Cryo-EM) have been employed for protein structure prediction in solution and crystal state and to understand the mechanisms defining the function of proteins; however, the determination of the structure and dynamics of large protein complexes and other biomolecular assemblies remains a major challenge in structural biology and biochemistry. In addition, no single technique—experimental or computational—can capture all the relevant scales of cellular function. Computational structural biology has made enormous progress over the last three decades. These methods include molecular modeling and refinement of 3D structures, de novo design of proteins, protein folding and stability, macromolecular function and protein design and prediction of macromolecular interactions, modeling of protein–protein and ligand interactions, at varying spatial resolutions and timescales. In addition, computational methods have also tackled computational challenges related to experimental techniques in structural biology or biochemistry and computational design of a protein crystal. Parallel to the massive application of experimental techniques to the determination of protein interaction networks and protein complexes, there is also increasing interest in developing computational methods based on sequence and genomic information. We expect that, in the future, more integrative methods and tools for protein structure prediction, interaction, and network analysis will be developed, along with methodological development to utilize the available experimental data using machine-learning methods.
The Guest Editor looks forward to collecting a set of recent advances in related topics, to provide a platform for researchers, and bridge the gap between computational researchers and experimental researchers. We are seeking contributions from the computational and structural biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and biophysics communities, in the form of either original articles or review articles, covering, but not limited to, the following topics:
- Protein structure prediction
- Protein interactions
- Protein–ligand interactions
- Protein–carbohydrate interactions
- Protein–protein interactions
- Protein stability and folding
- Protein–carbohydrate interactions
- Protein–DNA interactions
- Protein aggregation
- Protein design
Dr. Mehdi Davari
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Structural biology, biochemistry, and bioinformatics
- protein structure prediction
- Protein interactions
- Protein aggregation
- Protein design
- Structure-function relationship
- Protein modeling
- computational structural biology
- Macromolecular structure and function
