Level of life
Protein
A chain of amino acids folded into a working shape. Proteins act as enzymes, structures, signals and transporters.
Protein folding
A protein's amino acid sequence determines the three-dimensional shape it folds into, and that shape lets it work.Source: Anfinsen, 1973
Process
How Protein folding connects
Protein folding involves
Protein folding is related to
Idea or model
Protein structure
Atomic models of proteins, first solved by X-ray crystallography, are shared openly through the Protein Data Bank.
Studied in
Your progress
Sources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Principles that govern the folding of protein chains (opens the original in a new tab)
Anfinsen CB (1973). Science 181:223-230.
Nobel lecture: a protein's sequence determines its folded structure.
Historical paperPrimary research