In early 2008, Rosetta was used to computationally design a protein with a function never before observed in nature. This was inspired in part by the retraction of a high-profile paper from 2004 which originally described the computational design of a protein with improved enzymatic activity relative to its natural form. The 2008 research paper from David Baker's group describing how the protein was made, which cited Rosetta@home for the computing resources it made available, represented an important proof of concept for this protein design method. This type of protein design could have future applications in drug discovery, green chemistry, and bioremediation.