How could solving computational complexity problems like NP hard problems and traveling salesman help solve cancer?

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I’ve heard that solving these problems could help solve cancer specifically through protein folding problems but I have no idea how.

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

there are ways to convert problems within a computational complexity class. If you are interested in solving problem A, but only know how to solve problem B, you could try to convert A into a problem that is of type B.

If you efficiently solved the traveling salesmen problem, and you could convert the protein folding to a salesmen problem, you solved the protein folding.

One interesting question would be: are approximate solutions on the salesman also approximate solutions to the protein?

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