Integrated computational and experimental protein engineering for agriculture

Overview

This offering provides a collaborative protein engineering workflow that integrates computational design with experimental validation. It is intended for partners seeking to improve or customize protein function—such as binding specificity, stability, or activity—for agricultural applications. The workflow begins with available sequence, structural, and ligand information, then uses molecular docking, structural analysis, and in silico mutational analysis to prioritize focused sets of variants. Selected variants are constructed, expressed, and characterized experimentally, with results feeding into iterative design cycles.

Technical specifications

Key capabilities and process steps:

• Computational prioritization using molecular docking, structural analysis, and in silico mutational analysis to identify focused variant sets.
• Flexible expression platforms, including microbial expression and transient plant expression when biological context is important.
• Experimental evaluation of expression, solubility, biochemical activity, and ligand binding using functional assays.
• Iterative design–build–test cycles that refine computational predictions based on measured results.
• Collaborative project design: the workflow, target, and milestones are developed jointly with the partner, based on the desired property and primary bottleneck.

Prior experience:

• Ligand-bound structures, docking, and targeted mutagenesis used to study ligand recognition in MarR-family regulators.
• Structural modeling, docking, and biochemical measurements used to define sugar recognition by an ABC-transporter binding protein.
• Computational capacity for in silico mutational analysis and experience with both microbial and plant expression systems.

Technology readiness level

The underlying methods are established in the proposing laboratory, with prior applications in structural biology, computational modeling, recombinant expression, and protein biochemistry. The integrated workflow is proposed for validation through a collaborative project on partner-selected protein targets. Initial activities would evaluate available target information, prioritize variants computationally, and construct and test them using the most appropriate expression and assay systems. The exact milestones and scope would be defined jointly with the partner, making the workflow adaptable to the target and desired assay context.