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Updated: Jan 8, 2026

Paramagnetic Relaxation Enhancement for Detecting and Characterizing Self-Associations of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
Published on: September 23, 2021
Advances in the determination of disordered protein ensemble
Hamidreza Ghafouri1, Silvio C E Tosatto2, Alexander Miguel Monzon1
1Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131, Padova, Italy.
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Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) play essential roles in regulation, signaling, and phase separation, yet their structural complexity cannot be captured by a single conformation. Instead, they populate dynamic ensembles that encode a context-dependent function. Recent advances in experimental techniques coupled with physics-based simulations, coarse-grained models, and machine learning, have transformed our ability to generate and interpret IDP ensembles. Integrative frameworks now combine complementary data with computational approaches to refine ensembles at both local and global levels. Nevertheless, challenges remain in benchmarking, error estimation, and modeling assemblies involving protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions. We highlight recent progress and outline the emerging directions that will shape the next generation of ensemble determination methods.
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