Prof. Dr. Birte Höcker, Faculty of Biology, Chemistry & Earth Sciences, University of Bayreuth
"On the design of protein folds and functions"
Nature has generated an impressive diversity of proteins. We want to understand how these diverse structures and functions evolved and how we can apply observed mechanism to problems of protein design. The methods we apply range from generating and screening of mutant libraries via repurposing of active sites or binding pockets all the way to de novo design. In these approaches protein structures form the basis for our designs and we solve structures to validate our hypotheses. I will discuss the advantages and difficulties of the different approaches and show some highlights from our recent applications that range from de novo design of TIM-barrel proteins, via evolution-guided design by chimeragenesis to the repurposing of a repressor to a plant sensor.
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