A group of protein theorists at Rice University have worked with protein experimentalists to experimentally corroborate the theory of protein folding for a large, multi-subunit protein.

The work, published as two back-to-back papers in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is unusual because theorists usually do not study exactly the same thing as experimentalists, said Cecilia Clementi, the last author of the theoretical part of the study.