Multiple approaches have been developed in order to predict the protein secondary structure. In this paper, we propose an approach to such a problem based on evolutionary computation. The proposed approach considers various amino acids properties in order to predict the secondary structure of a protein. In particular, we will consider the hydrophobicity, the polarity and the charge of amino acids. In this study, we focus on predicting a particular kind of secondary structure: α-helices. The results of our proposal will be a set of rules that will identify the beginning or the end of such a structure. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.