Computational tools from a research team at the University of Michigan produced the winning entries in the 9th Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction experiment, according to a statement released this week.
The team, led by Yang Zhang, an associate professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics at the university, developed QUARK, which was selected as the best server for protein structure prediction in CASP 9, and I-TASSER, which placed second, although the tool has taken top honors in two previous CASP challenges.
Members of Zhang's group also developed COFACTOR, a tool that uses ligand-binding site, enzyme number, and gene ontology to make its predictions, which was adjudged the best method for function prediction.
A meeting to discuss the results of last year's challenge was held in Pacific Grove, Calif. last month.