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The determination of the first three-dimensional structure of a protein 50 years ago initiated the field of protein folding research. Technological and experimental advances, which were sometimes met with initial scepticism, have led to our present understanding of protein folding.
The idea that processes can be self-organized and self-reproducing is more than 100 years old. But self-organization principles that were first developed in chemistry and physics are only now beginning to be applied to cellular and subcellular morphogenesis.
