Using a century-old idea to answer new questions in biology

Abstract:

Proteins are the tiny crucial machinery of life, driving everything from immunity to reproduction.  A deeper understanding of their behaviors would open the door to new treatments or drug design.  Yet in many cases their roles remain a mystery due to the complexities of their structures and interactions. I will describe a particularly tricky set of proteins, called “intrinsically disordered” and show how a simple, 100-year old model does surprisingly well to help answer long-standing open questions about their function.