03 Dec 2002

Are you are curious about protein folding and how this fundamental process might go awry in diseases such as Alzheimer’s? If so, you may enjoy reading a broad and lucid update on this topic by Chris Dobson of University of Cambridge in England, at http://www.nature.com/drugdisc/horizon/proteinfolding/summary.html. Dobson describes the evolving view of the basic protein folding problem and scenarios for how changes in the regulation of protein folding in vivo may contribute to various diseases, as well as drug development strategies that grow out of this new understanding. His essay is a summary of proceedings at a Horizon Symposium on protein folding held in Italy last October. The Horizon Symposia are a new series of small meetings organized by the Nature Publishing Group and Aventis.-Gabrielle Strobel.