This of course depends only on the frequency of the binding sites in the genome.

ECONOMIST: How (and why) to find a needle in a haystack | The

After scanning across the whole surface, having previously compiled a relief map of the surface in the usual way, the researchers were able to draw up a map of the binding sites and pinpoint the positions of the antigens to within two or three nanometres.

ECONOMIST: Microscopy

Recently, however, Carlos Bustamante, a biophysicist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, and his colleagues there and at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have found a way to observe proteins as they search for their binding sites.

ECONOMIST: How (and why) to find a needle in a haystack | The