Speaker：Da Teng （滕达）Weitong Gao（高维通）Siyang Li（李思扬）

Time：14:00 - 17:00

Abstract

Although protein engineering has already greatly enriched the biological toolbox of scientists, designing complicated proteins from no template remained challenging until recent years. Progress in protein folding, biophysics, and protein biochemistry allowed us to see through the complexity and work on “de novo protein design,” or designing a protein with particular structure or function. Despite the advances in technology of the past 100 years, human-made machines cannot compete with the precision of function of proteins at the nanoscale and they cannot be produced by self-assembly. These delicate machines have the potential to solve a vast array of technical challenges – the ultrasensitive detection of small molecules (olfactory receptors) and of light (rhodopsin); the conversion of pH gradients into chemical bonds (ATP synthase); and the transformation of chemical energy into work (actin and myosin). Not only are these functions remarkable but they are encoded in sequences of amino acids with extreme economy. Protein design is therefore probably the best way to mimic this efficiency. Nowadays, de novo-designed proteins are no longer toys, and have shown prominence in many arenas. They can be a container to selectively bind a chemical fluorescence probe, inhibitor of certain protein-protein interaction interface, or fibers and nanomaterials that can self-assemble. Actually, naturally evolved proteins span only a tiny part of all possible occasions in the “protein space,” and more is yet to discover. Through artificial design, we can think wild about what protein can do and even go beyond what Nature has inspired. 

Guest information:

1. Dr. Luhua Lai (PKU)

http://cqb.pku.edu.cn/kxdw/zxjs/llh/253388.shtml

2. Dr. Yuan Liu (PKU)

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Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19946

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Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0509-0

2. Silva, Daniel-Adriano, et al. "De novo design of potent and selective mimics of IL-2 and IL-15." Nature 565.7738 (2019): 186.

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0830-7