A careful disorderliness in the proteome: Sites for interaction and targets for future therapies

The community of scientists interested in studying intrinsically unstructured (or disordered) proteins has emerged in recent years. What began as a controversial idea has become an established phenomenon. The new, greater focus on proteins that are in some way normally unstructured promises to provide a greater understanding of protein function, particularly with respect to protein-protein interactions. These regions also offer new possibilities into how interactions can be targeted by small molecules. (C) 2008 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.