WEHI AI & Machine Learning Workshop Series hosted by Dr Jack Alexandrovics

Assistant Professor Zibo Chen

School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, China

Molecular Programming Using De Novo Designed Proteins

Davis Auditorium

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

In nature, circuits of interacting proteins, genes, and other biomolecules compute cellular responses to internal and external signals and, more generally, can implement complex molecular algorithms. Compared to nucleic acids, which have been the basis of experimental molecular computing systems, programmable protein circuits could directly interface with endogenous pathways and provide powerful new functions for the cell, but have been difficult to engineer in a generalizable way. A scalable design for creating specific protein-protein interactions, analogous to base pairing in nucleic acids, would enable this vision. Here, I will describe a scheme to achieve DNA-like modular specificity in proteins based on computationally designed hydrogen bond networks, and show how it allows the creation of mutually orthogonal protein heterodimers, protein-based logic operations, self-assembling protein materials, and a protein-level neural network in mammalian cells.

Zibo Chen is the Mengxue assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at Westlake University. He received his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry in the labs of David Baker and Frank DiMaio at the University of Washington and worked on mammalian synthetic biology with Michael Elowitz at Caltech as a Damon Runyon Fellow. His work focuses on programming biology using proteins as the coding language. Outside of the lab, Zibo is an instrument rated pilot and enjoys flying around in a small Cessna.

All welcome!