Reconstructing proteins to explain and engineer biological diversity. The aim of this project is to develop computational methods to construct entirely new proteins. Computational reconstruction of enzymes that have been extinct for over 400 million years has revealed remarkable opportunities for biotechnological innovation. The intended outcomes are to develop bioinformatics methods to broaden the scope of ancestral protein reconstruction to include protein super-families, to establish what spe ....Reconstructing proteins to explain and engineer biological diversity. The aim of this project is to develop computational methods to construct entirely new proteins. Computational reconstruction of enzymes that have been extinct for over 400 million years has revealed remarkable opportunities for biotechnological innovation. The intended outcomes are to develop bioinformatics methods to broaden the scope of ancestral protein reconstruction to include protein super-families, to establish what specific changes led to the evolutionary success of a protein, and to re-run evolution to generate proteins that perform in conditions suitable for industrial and agricultural applications, in particular the production of hydroxylated fatty acids for bioplastics. By examining proteins from many life forms, the project plans to develop a novel bioinformatics strategy to understand their evolution and engineer new proteins for use in production of chemical commodities.Read moreRead less
Searching for near-exact protein models. This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising ap ....Searching for near-exact protein models. This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising approach, but its accuracy is far from satisfactory. The software systems developed in this project will be used in structural identification of target proteins in drug design. This will make drug design process more efficient, saving time and cost, potentially saving lives.Read moreRead less
RNA structure prediction by deep learning and evolution-derived restraints. This project addresses the long-standing structure-folding problem of Ribonucleic acids (RNA) whose solution is essential for elucidating the roles of noncoding RNAs in living organisms. The proposed approach will detect hidden homologous sequences and enhance evolutionary covariation signals by developing new algorithms for search and smarter neural networks for deep learning. The project expects to generate new tools ....RNA structure prediction by deep learning and evolution-derived restraints. This project addresses the long-standing structure-folding problem of Ribonucleic acids (RNA) whose solution is essential for elucidating the roles of noncoding RNAs in living organisms. The proposed approach will detect hidden homologous sequences and enhance evolutionary covariation signals by developing new algorithms for search and smarter neural networks for deep learning. The project expects to generate new tools for structure-based probing of RNA evolutional and functional mechanisms. The outcomes should provide significant benefits by high-accuracy computational modelling of RNA structures that are difficult and costly to solve by current structural biology techniques but important for enabling biotech and clinical applications.Read moreRead less