Student Invited Lecture Series: Brian Kuhlman
De Novo Protein Design With Multi-Objective Fitness Functions
Taylor Auditorium, Frick Chemistry Lab B02
Host: SILS
Speaker Details:
Oliver Smithies Investigator
Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Co-Director, UNC Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
We have developed a protein design pipeline, called EvoPro, that uses iterative rounds of deep learning-based structure prediction and sequence optimization to evolve protein sequences for prespecified design goals. Three design projects will be described that make use of EvoPro: (1) the creation of a set of de novo proteins where binding of protein A to protein B induces a conformational change in protein B that allows binding to protein C, (2) the de novo design of a pair of proteins encoded by opposite strands of a single stretch of double stranded DNA (“bidirectional proteins”), and (3) the design of protein-based vaccines for dengue virus.