Open AccessThe Next Frontier for Designing Switchable Proteins: Rational Enhancement of Kinetics
Author(s) -
Anthony Bogetti,
Maria F Presti,
Stewart N. Loh,
Lillian T. Chong
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the journal of physical chemistry. b
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.864
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1520-6106
pISSN - 1520-5207
DOI - 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c04082
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , nanotechnology , kinetics , computer science , rational design , transient (computer programming) , frontier , biosensor , materials science , physics , artificial intelligence , political science , quantum mechanics , law , operating system
Designing proteins that can switch between active (ON) and inactive (OFF) conformations in response to signals such as ligand binding and incident light has been a tantalizing endeavor in protein engineering for over a decade. While such designs have yielded novel biosensors, therapeutic agents, and smart biomaterials, the response times (times for switching ON and OFF) of many switches have been too slow to be of practical use. Among the defining properties of such switches, the kinetics of switching has been the most challenging to optimize. This is largely due to the difficulty of characterizing the structures of transient states, which are required for manipulating the height of the effective free energy barrier between the ON and OFF states. We share our perspective of the most promising new experimental and computational strategies over the past several years for tackling this next frontier for designing switchable proteins.