The world's largest human-designed protein has been created by Vanderbilt chemists through the use highly sophisticated computers. The team, led by Professor Jens Meiler, constructed a the protein entitled "FLR" from 242 amino acids, roughly twice the size of the world's largest synthetic predecessor. The complexity that arises from creating proteins this large is that after the amino acid chain sequence is derived, the secondary confirmation of the peptide chain begins to form and subsequently the tertiary confirmation of the actual protein needs to be taken into consideration. Due to this sensitivity, even if one amino acid is different the whole protein is actually affected. According the article it a takes a supercomputer with 400 processors over 10 days of continuous processing in order tofind the most stable configuration of a given protein sequence. Ultimately this new protein is being investigated as being used as a somewhat synthetic antibodie which could target flu-like virus and perhaps other phage-like pathogens. Ultimaetly, this new bioengineering of proteins and the genes for those proteins is opening up many new doors for solving various problems like defects and sicknesses.
Article Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111115180315.htm
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This is a very eye opening break through. It is interesting that it could be used like a synthetic antibody. I could only imagine that this would be initially very expensive though.
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