De Novo Protein Design

De novo protein design aims to create entirely new proteins with desired structures and functions, bypassing the limitations of naturally occurring proteins. Current research heavily utilizes machine learning, employing diverse architectures like generative adversarial networks (GANs), diffusion models, and large language models (LLMs), often incorporating multi-modal data such as protein sequences, structures, and textual annotations to guide the design process. These advancements are improving the success rate of generating functional proteins, with applications ranging from drug discovery to materials science. The field is actively exploring ways to enhance the accuracy, diversity, and controllability of generated proteins, focusing on incorporating more sophisticated representations of protein structure and function.