TEACHING POLYMERS TO FOLD

A new method is presented for predicting folding pathways of polymers. The folding pathway is described as a generic program or sequence of logical steps of such a form that a computer can carry them out to produce a folded structure. A genetic algorithm (GA) is used to learn specific sequences or folding pathways that carry a denatured conformation into a target final conformation. The method is demonstrated on a model 2-dimensional polymer for which the global energy minimum is known. The GA learns a program that will fold a denatured polymer into its global energy minimum conformation.