Zoom Meeting ID: 922 3585 0501

Password: 729450

Abstract:

Solubility and stability are key merits for proteins relating to the functional performance. Their manipulation represents important aspects of protein design for both mechanistic studies and practical applications. Enhancing the hydrophilicity of membrane proteins can facilitate their large-scale synthesis, study and utilization that are hindered by molecules’ hydrophobicity and tendency to aggregate in solution. Using the simple tool named QTY code devised by Dr. Shuguang Zhang at MIT, we designed soluble variants of multi-pass transmembrane proteins to be used as novel bio-nanomaterials in previously unattainable biomedical applications. Besides the potential in elucidating mechanistic insights of membrane protein function and serving as antibody-like decoy receptors for immunoregulation against various types of cancers in vivo, we adopted soluble membrane proteins as biospecific probes, by combining them with 2D-crystalline S-layer intermediates into a modular “dual-monolayer” biorecognition construct, to specifically detect pathologically relevant biomarkers. A biomimetic top-down platform was established by anchoring the construct onto graphene-based field-effect-transistor arrays, for point-of-care diagnostics and health-monitoring. On the other hand, by introducing hydrophobic interfaces into fully soluble proteins, we designed new species that self-assembled into well-ordered nanoparticles for drug delivery with receptor-mediated uptakes. Our work shows that reversibly manipulating solubility on different proteins enables the design of novel biomolecules with superior functional performance for biomedical use.

Biography:

Professor Rui Qing is a dedicated researcher in both materials science and molecular biology. His specialty includes membrane protein design, biosensing, and functional nanomaterials design. His future research interests are ML based protein design algorithms and molecular level bio-electronic integration.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME