Membrane protein analogues could accelerate drug discovery
EPFL researchers have created a deep learning pipeline for designing soluble analogues of key protein structures used in pharmaceutical development, sidestepping the prohibitive cost of extracting these proteins from cell membranes. Many drug and antibody discovery pathways focus on intricately folded cell membrane proteins: when molecules of a drug candidate bind to these proteins, like a key going into a lock, they trigger chemical cascades that alter cellular behavior. But because these proteins are embedded in the lipid-containing outer layer of cells, they are tricky to access and insoluble in water-based solutions (hydrophobic), making them difficult to study. “We wanted to get these proteins out of the cell membrane, so we redesigned them as hyperstable, soluble analogues, which look like membrane proteins but are much easier to work with,” explains Casper Goverde, a PhD student in the Laboratory of Protein…
