Protein design review charts path from bimolecular recognition to programmable cellular control
KevinKaichuang · x · 2026-10-21
Kevin Kaichuang shares a comprehensive review on protein design, laying out an ambitious vision: modular catalysts, condition-responsive therapeutics, energy-converting machines, and information-processing networks with programmable behaviors beyond evolution.
The accompanying figure maps the field's roadmap:
- Current strengths: bimolecular recognition — signaling agonists/antagonists, antitoxins, antivirals (HA, SARS-CoV-2 binders).
- Near-term challenges: non-protein recognition (nucleic acids, small molecules, PTMs), intrinsically disordered proteins, programmable dynamics, multi-component systems.
- Long-term goals: programmable cellular control, de novo signaling assemblies, coupled conformational changes, and emergent behaviors like ultrasensitivity and oscillation.
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