PROTEINS AND RANDOM HETEROPOLYMERS: AN OVERVIEW

We present a brief review of the main analytical and experimental results on the problem of protein folding. We will then discuss the conformational properties of the IMP model for an heteropolymeric chain at low and zero temperature. Finally we will analyze the dynamical relaxation of this system subject to the action of an external perturbation and we will discuss the localization of the normal oscillation modes around one stable configuration.