Dr. Jeffrey Brender
Problems and Opportunities in Computational Protein Design
The protein folding problem is one of the most famous unsolved problems in biology. Despite the recent progress made by Alphafold, it remains unsolved. Behind the protein folding problem, however, there is even deeper problem with potentially greater impact– the protein design problem. Predicting the effect of mutations on structure and function from first principles or even designing proteins that do things not seen in nature has advanced recently from a theoretical concept to a practical possibility. In this talk, I will describe some of the methods involved and outline a possible collaborative project in the works.
Audience: Anyone with an interest in protein engineering with some knowledge of basic biophysics at the undergraduate level