Sequence Determinants of Physico-chemical Properties of Molecules

We are interested in making quantitative predictions of physico-chemical properties of molecules using the only information contained in their sequences. We have already shown that folding rates, aggregation propensities, local stabilities and global flexibilities can be predicted with high accuracy. We are now facing new experimental challenges, such as the prediction of interactions with molecular chaperones and degradation rates of proteins. In the figure, we show that experimental protection factors (plotted with bars) can be predicted (continue line) with a correlation higher than 60% (adaped from Tartaglia GG, Cavalli A, Vendruscolo M. Prediction of local structural stabilities of proteins from their amino acid sequences. Structure. 2007 15 139-43.).