Design of New Protein Functions Using Deep Learning
To Know
About this Class
Proteins mediate the critical processes of life and beautifully solve the challenges faced during the evolution of modern organisms. Dr. Baker’s goal is to design a new generation of proteins that address current-day problems not faced during evolution. In contrast to traditional protein engineering efforts, which have focused on modifying naturally occurring proteins, he designs new proteins from scratch to optimally solve the problem at hand. Increasingly, he develops and uses deep learning methods to design amino acid sequences that are predicted to fold to desired structures and functions. They produce synthetic genes encoding these sequences and characterize them experimentally. In this talk, he will describe several recent advances in protein design.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand current methods for computational protein design, including AI-based approaches.
- Survey diverse applications of protein design, such as its role in drug development, materials science, and bioremediation.
- Identify opportunities at the frontier of AI-driven life science research, including where new data, tools, and research projects are needed.