Self-assembly of protein-made structures

Living organisms create complex protein based materials with remarkable properties. Inspired by those, one could ask if it would be possible to design protein-based materials from scratch for specific human uses, with applications ranging from medicine to biomaterials.
To achieve this goal, we need to understand and re-design the rules used by nature to encode specificity in protein interactions. Sophisticated techniques for designing proteins de novo have been developed recently in David Baker's lab. These proteins interact via designed hydrogen-bonding networks and can be used as building blocks to fabricate functional materials. The drawback is the enormous space of interactions that can be designed.
In order to explore this space and identify the interactions leading to specific mechanical properties, we need to understand the link between the protein building blocks and the target structures to assemble. Here I will present different approaches that one can take to predict the yield of protein-made structures and address the difficulties of relating statistical mechanics models and real world experiments.