Native Fold Delay and its implications for co-translational chaperone binding and protein aggregation

Proteins don’t fold all at once, they fold as they are being synthesized by the ribosome. But what happens when key interaction sites aren’t available at the right time during this process?

In our latest study we introduce Native Fold Delay (NFD), a new metric that integrates protein topology and translation kinetics to quantify delays in native structure formation.

Our findings suggest that timing is critical for proper protein folding and that co-translational chaperones like Hsp70 help safeguard proteins from misfolding during this vulnerable window.

Find the paper here