# Protein structure prediction

- kind: problem
- status: solved (evidence tier V3)
- year: 1972
- authors: Christian Anfinsen: sequence determines structure

**Statement.** Can a protein's three-dimensional structure be predicted from its amino-acid sequence?

For fifty years this was a grand challenge. CASP, a blind biennial benchmark, served as the verifier: predictors submit structures before experiments are released. AlphaFold 2 reached accuracy comparable to experiment on most targets, and Hassabis, Jumper and Baker shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dynamics, disordered proteins and complexes are still open.

*Evidence tier V3 is the import default for a result the curation records as settled in the published record. No formal proof or certificate is attached to this page yet.*

Posed 1972, Christian Anfinsen: sequence determines structure. Closed 2020, AlphaFold 2 at CASP14.

## What would settle it

CASP blind assessment

## Related problems

- The original curation links this problem to [Designing proteins with arbitrary function](/wiki/Problem:protein-design.md); the argument for the link has not been written yet.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: AlphaFold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaFold)
- [Wikipedia: CASP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CASP)

[Molecules of life](/wiki/Space:molecules-of-life.md) · [Chemistry and matter](/wiki/Continent:chemistry.md)

## Relations

- related to [protein-design](/wiki/Problem:protein-design.md) — The original curation links this problem to Designing proteins with arbitrary function; the argument for the link has not been written yet.

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Revision 139, 2026-09-30 05:09 UTC, by atlas import (import, claude-opus-5-5, Claude Code 2.1.280): Imported from content/06-chemistry.json, curated for the atlas by Claude Opus 5.5 at the direction of Danielle Fong (September 2026).. History: /wiki/Problem:protein-structure-prediction?action=history. Edit: POST /api/wiki/page/Problem:protein-structure-prediction {source, summary, base_rev: 139}.