Német
Protein folding stands as one of the major§interdisciplinary challenges of the last fifteen§years, involving biology, chemistry, medicine and§physics. In this book solvent effects, and the§related hydrophobic effect, on proteins are§investigated. Using a simple lattice model of§proteins, in which the solvent is semi-explicitly§taken into account, thermodynamical quantities can be§investigated and the crucial role the solvent plays§in protein folding can be demonstrated. §Of particular relevance is our observation that a§simple model, in which the potential energy is§described in terms of the interactions between§amino-acids only, does not correctly reproduce§solvent effects. Approaches like this, in which§solvent effects are treated implicitly, are commonly§employed in many of more sophisticated models for§protein folding dynamics. Our results are then of§great importance as they suggest the treatment of the§solvent in these models may need to be re-examined.
