David Baker

Dec 18, 2024 | nature.com | David Baker

AbstractFour, eight or twenty C3 symmetric protein trimers can be arranged with tetrahedral, octahedral or icosahedral point group symmetry to generate closed cage-like structures1,2. Viruses access more complex higher triangulation number icosahedral architectures by breaking perfect point group symmetry3,4,5,6,7,8,9, but nature appears not to have explored similar symmetry breaking for tetrahedral or octahedral symmetries.

Dec 18, 2024 | nature.com | David Baker

AbstractPseudosymmetric hetero-oligomers with three or more unique subunits with overall structural (but not sequence) symmetry play key roles in biology, and systematic approaches for generating such proteins de novo would provide new routes to controlling cell signaling and designing complex protein materials.

Oct 15, 2024 | cell.com | David Baker |Ana Alvarez |Ana Álvarez

KeywordsureapH modificationlocal pHelectrochemistryhydrogenIntroductionControl of pH during a chemical reaction is one of the most fundamental experimental parameters in chemistry. To manipulate pH, researchers can functionalize surfaces,1 add buffers, or mix acids and bases in aqueous solutions for any desired performance.

Aug 26, 2024 | nature.com | David Baker

AbstractProtein–protein interactions (PPIs) regulate many cellular processes and engineered PPIs have cell and gene therapy applications. Here, we introduce massively parallel PPI measurement by sequencing (MP3-seq), an easy-to-use and highly scalable yeast two-hybrid approach for measuring PPIs. In MP3-seq, DNA barcodes are associated with specific protein pairs and barcode enrichment can be read by sequencing to provide a direct measure of interaction strength.

Aug 4, 2024 | nature.com | Jason Zhang |David Baker

AbstractClinical resistance to rat sarcoma virus (Ras)-G12C inhibitors is a challenge. A subpopulation of cancer cells has been shown to undergo genomic and transcriptional alterations to facilitate drug resistance but the immediate adaptive effects on Ras signaling in response to these drugs at the single-cell level is not well understood. Here, we used Ras biosensors to profile the activity and signaling environment of endogenous Ras at the single-cell level.