Surfing on quantum waves: Protein folding revisited

Surfing on quantum waves: Protein folding revisited

"by University of Luxembourg"

Now writing in Science Advances, Prof. Alexandre Tkatchenko and doctoral researcher Martin Stöhr from the Department of Physics and Materials Science at the University of Luxembourg have investigated the folding process of proteins in water using a fully quantum-mechanical treatment for the first time.

Protein folding is the physical process by which a chain of amino acids acquires its native biologically functional structure due to interactions between amino acids and the influence of surrounding water. A key novel finding of the present study is that the interaction between the protein and the surrounding water has to be described by quantum-mechanical wavelike behavior, which also turns out to be critical in the dynamics of the protein folding process.

"The persistence of quantum wavelike behavior in biomolecular systems opens up a new paradigm for explaining some of the fundamental processes in biology," says Martin Stöhr, the first author of the study. A correct microscopic understanding of biological processes is key to specifically target the function and dysfunction in cells as desired in modern medicine, for instance.

"Going ahead, we foresee a major role of quantum interactions for the biomolecular machinery ranging from protein assembly to the function of enzymes," explains Prof. Alexandre Tkatchenko, the corresponding author of the study.