Centre for Protein Engineering, University of Cambridge

Citation

(2002), "Centre for Protein Engineering, University of Cambridge", Kybernetes, Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2002.06731aab.007

Centre for Protein Engineering, University of Cambridge

Centre for Protein Engineering, University of Cambridge

The Director of the Centre described how a deeper understanding of the way that Nature constructs enzymes is allowing protein engineers to mimic evolution in the test tube in an attempt to identify and select new enzymes. He said that "Nature has given us a lot of enzymes, but we need more". It was believed however, that a simple approach of randomly mutating genes for enzymes does not work; huge and completely unmanageable numbers of mutations are possible. The Cambridge researchers have discovered that structural elements of proteins are preserved during naturalmutation that genes encode a "Lego kit" of substructures that can be mixed and matched to create new enzymes. By cutting and pasting different parts of the gene to make a new protein, the researchers have devised a a simplified selection procedure and have succeeded in making an Artificial enzyme.