Submitted by Abbi Abbioui on Fri, 16/04/2021 - 12:10
A new BBSRC-funded project aims to exploit de novo designed proteins to control protein-protein interactions in new ways.
The research will use a diversity of available and new protein modules called coiled coils as scaffolds to promote non-natural protein-protein interactions.
These will be adapted in two applications: First, the disruption of endogenous protein-protein interactions to control and direct cellular processes in which they are involved. Second, the formation of entirely new protein-protein interactions to target disease-associated proteins for degradation using the natural intracellular protein degradation machinery.
The grant is worth £1.7M over 3.5 years. It will bring together Laura Itzhaki’s protein engineering lab with collaborators in chemical biology at Leeds and protein design and synthetic biology at Bristol.