Protein Dynamics and Stability: Universality vs

Two seemingly conflicting properties of native proteins, such as enzymes and antibodies, are known to coexist. While proteins need to keep their specific native fold structure thermally stable, the native fold displays the ability to perform large amplitude motions that allow proper function. This conflict cannot be bridged by compact objects which are characterized by small amplitude vibrations and by a Debye density of low frequency modes. Recently, however, it became clear that proteins can be described as fractals; namely, geometrical objects that possess self similarity. Adopting the fractal point of view to proteins makes it possible to describe within the same framework essential information regarding topology and dynamics using three parameters: the number of amino acids along the protein backbone N, the spectral dimension s d and the fractal