Imagine having the power to create a brand new protein—a biosensor for any small molecule, say, or a novel enzyme—on demand. It's not pure fantasy. Computational structural biology is poised to put this power into our hands.
Along with a team of research groups around the world, we have begun designing novel proteins and folds from scratch, computing amino acid sequences that will fold to create enzymatic activities never before seen in nature. The possibilities are limited only by our imaginations: Picture an endonuclease designed to thwart malaria, molecular sensors for bioterror agents, or a vaccine that HIV is less likely to evolve around.
The mechanics of these engineering feats are closely related, perhaps not surprisingly, to their logical inverse: structure prediction. Scientists have for years tried to develop methods for predicting a protein's structure simply from its amino acid sequence. Imagine that in the time it takes to sequence ...
