Design of Proteins with Various Shapes
Protein molecules carry out their functions based on the three-dimensional structures specified by their amino acid sequences. The space of protein sequences is astronomically vast, and the proteins discovered by nature constitute only a tiny fraction of the entire protein sequence space. We have developed principles and methods based on the structural data of naturally occurring proteins and physicochemistry to design proteins from scratch. We have successfully designed a variety of ab and all-a protein structures, including those with topologies not found in nature, with atomic resolution. The presentation will highlight these researches and discuss future prospects.