Statistical Mechanics Model for Protein Folding

We present a statistical mechanics formalism for the theoretical description of the process of protein folding↔unfolding transition in water environment. The presented formalism is based on the construction of the partition function of a protein obeying two‐stage‐like folding kinetics. Than, using the statistical mechanics model of solvation of hydrophobic hydrocarbons we obtain the partition function of infinitely diluted solution of proteins in water environment. The results of the presented theoretical model for protein folding is compared with the experimental measurements of the heat capacity on temperature dependencies of staphylococcal nuclease and metmyoglobin.