Event
Special Lecture in Biological Chemistry: Linna An (University of Washington)
De novo Design of Small Molecule Binding and Sensing Proteins
Dr. Linna An
University of Washington
Monday, February 10, 2025
10:30 AM
Carolyn Hoff Lynch Lecture Hall
Chemistry Complex
231 South 34th Street
De novo Design of Small Molecule Binding and Sensing Proteins
A general computational method to build small molecule-protein interfaces from scratch would be widely useful for many challenges, including ligand binder, sensor design, and enzyme engineering. Yet, designing proteins to bind small molecules is extremely challenging because the problem requires a highly accurate sampling in a gigantic sampling space. In this talk, I will go through how we approach the small molecule binding problem through building machine learning-based protein design methods and successfully demonstrating their robustness through designing binders to various ligands, including polar and flexible ones. Using the designed binders, I further developed a general method to turn binders into sensors through building chemically induced oligomerization systems. I will also project how our methods can revolutionize enzyme engineering by significantly increasing our screening capability and enabling large structural manipulations that were impossible before on enzyme redesign.
Bio: Linna An got her bachelor's degree at University of Science and Technology of China, after that she moved on to get her Ph.D. at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Prof. Wilfred van der Donk. Her Ph.D. thesis focused on the discovery and engineering of Natural product biosynthesis systems, particularly antibiotics. In 2020, she moved to University of Washington to work on computational protein design with Dr. David Baker.