Coming to peace with protein complexes? 5th CAPRI evaluation meeting, April 17-19th 2013-Utrecht

Interactomes are large, intricate and highly dynamic molecular networks that determine the fate of the cell. They rely on thousands of protein complexes that form the executive machinery underlying biological processes, from DNA replication to protein degradation through metabolism. Understanding the function of these macromolecular assemblies and designing new drugs that target them requires taking the step towards solving their three-dimensional structures. This is, however, not a trivial task and there is a large gap between the number of complexes identified by large-scale proteomics efforts and those for which high-resolution 3D experimental structures are available. For this reason complementary computational approaches are welcome additions to the structural biology toolbox. Being able to predict, model and understand biomolecular assemblies requires tackling the challenges of predicting large conformational changes potentially occurring upon binding, dealing with heterogeneous multi-component assemblies and predicting their binding affinity. The molecular docking community, catalyzed by CAPRI (Critical Assessment of PRedicted Interaction), is tackling those challenges.