Also: protein design, computational proteins, AI protein design
De novo proteins are designed from scratch by computer rather than taken from nature. Related AI tools predict how proteins fold. David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work.
Readiness: lab lab studies · prototype demonstrated objects · commercial products or buildings in real use · review summaries of other studies.
Kuhlman and colleagues designed Top7, a protein with a fold not seen in nature, and confirmed its structure closely matched the design.
Built / tested: designed protein Top7
As reported in: Kuhlman, Dantas, Ireton et al. (2003). Design of a Novel Globular Protein Fold with Atomic-Level Accuracy. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1089427
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Huang, Boyken and Baker reviewed progress in designing proteins from scratch and their possible uses.
As reported in: Huang, Boyken, Baker (2016). The coming of age of de novo protein design. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature19946
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Jumper and colleagues described AlphaFold, an AI system predicting protein 3D structures with high accuracy.
Built / tested: AlphaFold software
As reported in: Jumper, Evans, Pritzel et al. (2021). Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold. Nature. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2
Watson and colleagues introduced RFdiffusion, a generative AI method for designing new protein structures and binders.
Built / tested: designed binders
As reported in: Watson, Juergens, Bennett et al. (2023). De novo design of protein structure and function with RFdiffusion. Nature. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06415-8