Title
The coming of age of de novo protein design
Conference Dates
September 15-19, 2019
Abstract
Proteins mediate the critical processes of life and beautifully solve the challenges faced during the evolution of modern organisms. Our goal is to design a new generation of proteins that address current day problems not faced during evolution. In contrast to traditional protein engineering efforts, which have focused on modifying naturally occurring proteins, we design new proteins from scratch based on Anfinsen’s principle that proteins fold to their global free energy minimum. We compute amino acid sequences predicted to fold into proteins with new structures and functions, produce synthetic genes encoding these sequences, and characterize them experimentally. I will describe the de novo design of small molecule binding proteins and enzyme scaffolds, membrane penetrating macrocycles, transmembrane protein channels, and proteins that undergo conformational changes, including allosteric proteins that carry out logic operations.
Recommended Citation
David Baker, "The coming of age of de novo protein design" in "Enzyme Engineering XXV", Huimin Zhao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA John Wong, Pfizer, USA Eds, ECI Symposium Series, (2019). https://dc.engconfintl.org/enzyme_xxv/133