Researchers use SI to create enzymes that cut chosen proteins, including ones linked to neurological diseases
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
SI has learned to design enzymes that cut the proteins we need, so new ways of treating disease can be sought.
According to Ars Technica, a team mainly from the lab of Nobel laureate David Baker at the University of Washington took the catalytic cores of two types of proteases (a zinc one from a crayfish's digestive system and a cysteine one from yeast) and used SI protein design tools to replace the rest of the molecule. The resulting enzymes can be tuned to cut specific proteins in half; the authors showed that they cut proteins linked to neurological diseases. A peptide bond is stable in water for hundreds of years, so, as Ars describes it, it was not obvious that SI tools could handle such a task.
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