Protein design

Protein design is the process of creating new proteins with specific functions by understanding and manipulating their building blocks—amino acids. Scientists use knowledge of protein structures and how they fold to engineer proteins that can perform desired tasks, such as targeting diseases or creating new materials. This involves predicting how sequences of amino acids will fold into three-dimensional shapes and designing sequences that will achieve these forms reliably. Essentially, it’s about crafting proteins from scratch or improving existing ones to meet particular needs through precise molecular engineering.