Journal post from David Baker

We have discovered how to make several new classes of protein structures! Rosetta@home has been absolutely critical in this work: when we design a sequence to fold into a new structure, the last thing we do before ordering a synthetic gene so we can make the protein in the laboratory is to send it out to you to predict the structure-if it folds to the structure we designed, we go ahead with it, but if you find that the lowest energy state is a different structure we go back to the drawing board. Our success rate in making brand new structures is far higher than I or anybody else ever expected, and the reason the success rate is so high is that your calculations provide a very stringent test of whether the designed sequence will actually fold the way it is supposed to. In the next few weeks I and other scientists here will describe to you the new classes of proteins we are making, and the many applications they will be useful for. Thank you for your absolutely essential contributions to this newly emerging scientific field!