SSC #19: Exploring Protein Design: the Next Frontier of Biomedicine by Foster Birnbaum and Jack Ryan

Stanford SciCast

Our bodies are powered by proteins. They convert the food we eat into energy, convert that energy into motion, and keep our cells, and therefore ourselves, alive and healthy. Proteins can also pose a danger to our wellbeing -- the proteins surrounding the SARS-CoV-2 virus are particularly well suited to recognize and bind to human cells, allowing the virus to infect us. Given that proteins underlie so many biological processes, researchers have been attempting to create new proteins that accomplish a specific function since the 1940s. In this episode of Stanford SciCast, seniors Foster Birnbaum and Jack Ryan explore this decades-old challenge, known as the protein design problem. They explain how proteins fold, why that folding is important to a protein’s function, and how researchers use computational models of protein folding to facilitate protein design. Also, they interview Dr. Possu Huang, a professor in Stanford’s Department of Bioengineering, to discuss how his lab is applying artificial intelligence to protein folding and how solving the protein folding problem would affect society. To learn more about protein design, visit Dr. Huang’s lab website at http://www.proteindesign.org/ or check out one of his most recent publications at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.06.895466v1. Music credits: Upbeat Whistle - Unknown artist (https://freemusicarchive.org/track/Upbeat_Whistle/download) Awake - Scott Holmes (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/cinematic-background-music/awake) Space Travel - Borrtex (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Borrtex/Distant_Sphere/5_Space_Travel) Algorithms - Chad Crouch (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Chad_Crouch/Arps/Algorithms) Pretty Simple - Podington Bear (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Background/Pretty_Simple) Firestorm - Sputnik Booster (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Sputnik_Booster/Robot_Science/04_-_Firestorm) Beads was scattered - urupin (https://freesound.org/people/urupin/sounds/157688/) Happy Theme - maxmakessounds (https://freesound.org/people/maxmakessounds/sounds/353543/)