William DeGrado: De Novo Protein Design

Lecture by Professor William DeGrado, University of California San Francisco, at the Molecular Frontiers Symposium "Frontiers of New Knowledge in Science" in Hong Kong, Nov 15-17, 2024. ABSTRACT Not too long ago, the design of proteins from scratch that fold into predictable structures was considered an impossible task, but with advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence it is now increasingly routine. Given our ability to design protein structures the next challenge has been to design function. The success or failures of the designs informs our understanding of the principles underlying the desired function and additionally provides the first step towards the design of proteins with useful functions not available to natural proteins. This talk will describe the design of proteins for the recognition and delivery of small molecule drugs, nucleotide sequencing, and environmentally friendly chemical processes.