Proteins function by making and breaking interactions with other molecules. The identities of these molecules cover the full spectrum of substances that one might find in an organism, illustrating the astounding structural and functional diversity that can be obtained from different combinations of roughly 20 amino acids. Thus, proteins are able to form functional interactions with partners ranging from metal ions and small diatomic molecules, such as oxygen and nitric oxide, through to typical organic molecules and macromolecules, such as nucleic acid polymers, polysaccharides, and of course other proteins. Given the enormous breadth of these interactions and the functions that they bring about, we have chosen in this chapter to focus on capturing a few of the general principles underlying protein recognition. As other chapters in this volume deal in depth with enzymes and enzyme-substrate interactions, we focus here on protein-protein and protein-DNA recognition.First, we discuss the general physicochemical nature of the interfaces made between proteins and their partners, the strength of these interactions, and methods for measuring their strength. Next, we describe two areas of protein recognition that have recently received much attention: coupled folding and binding, in which at least one of the partners in a protein interaction is disordered in the absence of its partner, and the regulation of protein interactions by post-translational modification (PTM) -a phenomenon that underlies diverse biological processes such as signaling and gene regulation. Finally, we look at progress that has been made in exploiting our understanding of protein recognition to either inhibit protein-protein interactions or to engineer new interactions for research or therapeutic purposes.