Folding funnel
= Folding funnel
A folding funnel is a schematic <energy landscape> in which increasingly native-like <protein> conformations tend to have lower <free energy>, while the many unfolded conformations occupy a broad region. Roughness represents barriers and possible kinetic traps. The funnel is an organizing description, not a claim that every protein follows one unique geometrical trajectory or possesses a rigid isolated native state.