cool,

Very interesting. But "Native" shows the experimentally determined true shape, if known.
If you already know the true shape, why are you trying to calculate it?

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When the conformation of a given protein is known, it is very useful to see if your computational algorithms can come up with the same answer. Because if they don't, you've got more work to do.

In very general terms, any time you come up with a computer model of something that occurs in nature, you want to confirm your model by blindly applying it to a natural occurrence to see if it predicts the outcome you actually observe in nature. If your model does not predict what actually occurs, then there is room to improve the model.

For example, if you have a computer model that predicts changes to world climate, you want to enter all of the data that you have for the year 1900 and see if you accurately predict what was observed in 1910 and 1920.

Rosetta is really about developing the best computational model of how proteins work.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense