Biological macromolecules such as DNA and proteins acquire a specific architecture in space. The 3D conformation they adopt is a direct consequence of their nucleic acid or amino acid sequence, respectively. A protein’s function is defined by its 3D structure.
Bioinformatics develops software that is able to model and predict a protein’s 3D structure, and hence deduce its probable function. Such tools are of great assistance in the field of drug design, for instance.