Incoming links: Cryogenic electron microscopy
Cryogenic electron microscopy, which was developped in the 70's.
Ah, the jewel of computational physics.
Also known as an ab initio method: no experimental measurement is taken as input, QED is all you need.
But since QED is thought to fully describe all relevant aspects molecules, it could be called "the" ab initio method.
For one, if we were able to predict protein molecule interactions, our understanding of molecular biology technologies would be solved.
No more ultra expensive and complicated X-ray crystallography or cryogenic electron microscopy.
And the fact that quantum computers are one of the most promising advances to this field, is also very very exciting: Section "Quantum algorithm".
One of its main applications is to determine the 3D structure of proteins.
Sometimes you are not able to crystallize the proteins however, and the method cannot be used.
Crystallizing is not simple because:
- you need a considerable amount of the protein
- sometimes it only crystallizes if you add some extra small chemical that stabilizes it
Cryogenic electron microscopy can sometimes determine the structures of proteins that failed crystallization.