Splash Biography

We'll be learning about an exciting, up-and-coming niche in science that combines computers and biology! Proteins' shapes can help us decipher their function in our bodies. We can use this information to better understand how to make cures for diseases. This class will overview the basics of protein structure (not the kind you eat!!!) and the latest and greatest in using this knowledge to better understand biology and make new cures. NOTE: This class will be taught by a remote teacher (with students present in the classroom, which will be managed by a Splash volunteer).

Computational protein design is an exciting field that uses physics-based representations of proteins and more recently, machine learning, to predict three dimensional structures of proteins from linear, primary sequences. Conversely, networks have also been trained predict a sequence that will fold into a particular structure. This technology has rapidly broadened our knowledge of protein structures and has shown exciting progress for protein-based therapeutics development as well. The goal of this workshop is to introduce students to the field and explore some exciting uses of this technology. Here are some articles to familiarize yourself with the general space of de novo design in the past and present: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/science/protein-design-david-baker.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/science/artificial-intelligence-proteins.html