301159 SE Protein Design and Evolution (2017W)

Lecturers

• Kristina Djinovic-Carugo

Classes

Vorlesende: Dr. Julia Shifman, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Ort: Seminar raum 3. Stock, Dr. Bohr-Gasse
Zeitplan: 2, 3, 4, 5 October, jeweils 16.00-18.00
In this course, I will survey topics in experimental and computational protein design and directed evolution. Protein design and directed evolution are two complimentary approaches that allow us to obtain proteins with a desired structure and/or function. While protein design is a top-down approach where proteins are modified rationally using computers or site-directed mutagenesis, directed evolution is a bottom-up design strategy that allows us to select proteins with improved properties. The beginning of the protein design field dates back to the early 1990's when the first simple alpha helical and beta sheet proteins were constructed from scratch. In the late nineties, computational methods have been introduced into the protein design field and have been since widely apllied to design proteins de novo and to supplement existing proteins with a new function. I will discuss how protein design has been applied to engineer new enzymes, ligand sensors, nanomaterials, and therapeutic molecules. In the second part of the course the students will be introduced to various methods for directed evolution such as Phage display, Yeast surface display, and Ribosome display. I will discuss several applications of the directed evolution methodology to engineer better enzymes and to obtain inhibitors of various diseases-associated proteins starting with antibodies, various small protein domains, and natural protein effectors. Finally, I will give a few examples how computational design could be combined with experimental directed evolution to yield superior results in protein engineering.