AI Proteins Founder & CEO Chris Bahl and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Investigator Nick Polizzi discuss the current state of protein design and new innovations that are around the corner

Both experts in the field, one with an academic view and one from industry, they discuss what can be done today with protein design, new innovations coming in the next year or two, and how they think about improving selectivity and sensitivity. Plus, how AI is changing the field, what it takes to be differentiated, and implications of new startups sharing less knowledge than has been traditionally done.

Chapters

The current state of the art – 1:05

What is coming in the next year or two - 4:58

Biasing against immunogenicity – 15:50

What can protein design do now that could be enabling – 19:33

Protein selectivity and specificity – 22:24

Protein literacy in the age of AI – 24:36

Differentiation in the age of many protein design startups – 27:29

The implications of less sharing today – 29:14

Highlighting the importance of the OpenFold project – 36:43

The Experts

Chris Bahl, MS, PhD is the President, CEO and Founder of AI Proteins. Prior to AI Proteins, Chris was a founding faculty member at the Institute for Protein Innovation in Boston, with co-appointments at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Chris pioneered the ability to computationally design miniproteins de novo as a postdoctoral fellow with Nobel Laureate David Baker at the Institute for Protein Design in Seattle. Chris is dedicated to spreading knowledge in computational protein design through initiatives he founded such as the Boston Protein Design and Modeling Club, and the Latin American Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Protein Design. Chris serves on the Executive Council of The Protein Society, and the Executive Board for Rosetta Commons. He is a Technical Advisor for IMPRINT Labs, and a Scientific Advisor for Applied Photophysics and BioLoomics.

Nick Polizzi, PhD is an Independent Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an Associate Member of the Broad Institute, and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory studies the molecular principles of protein–small-molecule recognition through the lens of de novo protein design. The Polizzi Lab develops machine-learning algorithms to create proteins that bind small molecules with high specificity and affinity, and rigorously validates these designs using biophysical, biochemical, and structural methods. Using de novo design enables, in principle, targeting any small molecule of interest without relying on natural ligand-binding proteins as starting points. A central goal of the lab is to deliver robust, easy-to-use design tools that broadly accelerate scientific discovery and address unmet needs in biology and biomedicine, including the development of drug antidotes and delivery vehicles, reprogrammed enzymes, and small-molecule biosensors. Nick serves on the editorial advisory board of the journal, Protein Engineering, Design & Selection (PEDS), and is a co-organizer of the Boston Protein Design and Modeling Club.