Directed evolution of proteins in vivo

In this project, a new phage-based directed evolution approach will be used to evolve proteins with properties to make them suitable for use in synthetic circuit applications, such as in vivo biosensing or construction of bistable switches.

Directed evolution allows for the rapid selection of new protein function. By iterative rounds of mutagenesis and selection under conditions which favour the desired property/activity, variants can be selected from a large library without any requiring detailed structural information.

A recently published method for directed evolution using filamentous phage should allow a wide variety of selection schemes to be employed. For example, it should be possible to convert a transcriptional repressor into a transcriptional activator, or to improve the strength of a particular protein-protein interaction.

Keith Shearwin

Supervisors

Associate Professor Keith Shearwin

Co-supervisor: Dr Nan Hao

Research area:  Synthetic biology, biochemistry, genetics and mathematical modelling

Recommended honours enrolment: Honours in Molecular and Biomedical Science

Tagged in Honours projects - Molecular and biomedical science, Honours projects - Keith Shearwin, Honours projects - Nan Hao, Honours projects - Molecular and biomedical science: Biochemistry