Introduction of Research

Protein molecules spontaneously fold into unique three-dimensional structures specified by their amino acid sequences from random coils to carry out their functions. Many of protein studies have been performed by analyzing naturally occurring proteins. However, it is difficult to reach fundamental working principles of protein molecules only by analyzing naturally occurring proteins, since they evolved in their particular environments spending billions of years. In our lab, we explore the principles by computationally designing protein molecules completely from scratch and experimentally assessing how they behave.