Chaperone-assisted protein folding: the path to discovery from a personal perspective

Abstract

Protein folding was of little interest to cell biologists until the mid- and late 1980s, when the chaperone story began to unfold. As a result, we now know that in cells, many proteins require molecular chaperones and metabolic energy to fold efficiently and at a biologically relevant rate. Here Hartl describes, from a personal perspective, the developments leading to this new view.