In this video Stephen L. Mayo, Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, discusses the challenges of designing new proteins that fold into a particular structure or perform a particular function. One method is to computationally design a protein based solely upon our knowledge of amino acids and protein folding, a hard task but one which has had recent successes. Another approach is to screen combinatorial libraries of proteins for a desired function. In particular, Mayo discusses how structure-based computational methods can allow for high mutation rate (to explore a diversity of function) while maintaining stably folded structures (a necessity to preserve stability and function).
In the second part of his talk, he discusses how he has used protein libraries to design a new blue fluorescent protein.
