Establishing a Periodic Table Toolbox for Nanoassembly and Superselectivity

合成生物学指的是对生物学采取工程方法，允许生物构建块以可控和可预测的方式组装和功能。合成生物学有可能在能源、保健和农业等领域产生重大变化。蛋白质是合成生物学中强大的工具，因为它们具有多种活动，包括催化反应和感知环境变化。我们的团队已经建立了一种特殊的牢不可破的方式来连接蛋白质，利用细菌中不寻常的蛋白质化学。蛋白质结构周期表有助于理解蛋白质如何组成团队的对称性。我们在这里开发的工具箱可以简单地通过与合适的伙伴混合，将蛋白质组装成从2到720个成员的团队，并且大小范围很大。团队合作很重要，即使在分子水平上也是如此，因此这种组装将使蛋白质在生命系统中如何结合、发出信号和移动成为可能。许多疗法依赖于区分具有某种受体水平的健康细胞和具有较高受体水平的不健康细胞。通常情况下，很难产生药物来杀死不健康的细胞而不产生毒副作用，因为药物也会粘在许多健康细胞上。超选择性是建立在非生命系统上的一种原理，可以减少这些副作用。在这里，我们将利用新的蛋白质团队，这样我们就可以找到如何在活细胞上实现超选择性。

Synthetic biology refers to taking an engineering approach to biology, allowing biological building blocks to be assembled and function in a controlled and predictable way. Synthetic biology has potential to generate major changes in areas including energy, healthcare and agriculture. Proteins are powerful tools in synthetic biology because of their diverse activities, including catalysing reactions and sensing changes in their environment. Our group has established a specific unbreakable way to connect proteins, from harnessing an unusual protein chemistry from bacteria. The periodic table of protein architectures helps to understand the symmetry of how proteins can come together into teams. The toolbox we develop here will make it possible, simply by mixing with the appropriate partner, to assemble a protein into teams ranging from 2 to 720 members and over a wide size range. Teamwork matters, even at the molecular level, so this assembly will enable tuning of how proteins bind, signal and move in living systems. Many therapies depend upon distinguishing between healthy cells with some level of a receptor versus unhealthy cells having higher receptor levels. Normally it is difficult to generate drugs to kill the unhealthy cells without toxic side-effects from the drug also sticking to many healthy cells. Superselectivity is a principle established on non-living systems that could reduce these side-effects. Here we will harness the new protein teams so we can find out how to achieve superselectivity on living cells.