Directed Chemical Evolution of Self-Assembling Artificial Proteins by Britto S. Sandanaraj Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, IISER-Pune
Abstract
The vast diversity of proteins with spectacular structure and function is the result of natural evolution with the time scale of millions of years. With the invention of DNA recombinant technology, the biologists exploited directed evolution principles to create vast number of self-assembling artificial proteins (SAPs) in very short time. However, most of the SAPs made through genetic methods lack functions due to reasons they are restricted to standard set of twenty amino acids. In this talk, I will discuss about our laboratory efforts to design and synthesize SAPs with rich structural diversity through directed chemical evolution method powered by a micelle-assisted protein labelling technology (MAPLabTech). The designer proteins self-assemble to form protein assemblies of defined size and shape and also exhibit exotic functions.