A suite of designed protein cages using machine learning and protein fragment-based protocols
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Abstract Designed protein cages and related materials provide unique opportunities for applications in biotechnology and medicine, while methods for their creation remain challenging and unpredictable. In the present study, we apply new computational approaches to design a suite of new tetrahedrally symmetric, self-assembling protein cages. For the generation of docked poses, we emphasize a protein fragment-based approach, while for de novo interface design, a comparison of computational protocols highlights the power and increased experimental success achieved using the machine learning program ProteinMPNN. In relating information from docking and design, we observe that agreement between fragment-based sequence preferences and ProteinMPNN sequence inference correlates with experimental success. Additional insights for designing polar interactions are highlighted by experimentally testing larger and more polar interfaces. In all, using X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM, we report five structures for seven protein cages, with atomic resolution in the best case reaching 2.0 Å. We also report structures of two incompletely assembled protein cages, providing unique insights into one type of assembly failure. The new set of designed cages and their structures add substantially to the body of available protein nanoparticles, and to methodologies for their creation.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
Jumper, J., Evans, R., Pritzel, A., Green, T., Figurnov, M., Ronneberger, O., Tunyasuvunakool, K., Bates, R., Žídek, A., Potapenko, A., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2 · Cited by 43,764 · see citing works
Watson, J. L., Juergens, D., Bennett, N. R., Trippe, B. L., Yim, J., Eisenach, H. E., Ahern, W., Borst, A. J., Ragotte, R. J., Milles, L. F., et al. (2022) · doi:10.1101/2022.12.09.519842 · Cited by 2,369 · see citing works
De novo design of protein structure and function with RFdiffusion
Watson, J. L., Juergens, D., Bennett, N. R., Trippe, B. L., Yim, J., Eisenach, H. E., Ahern, W., Borst, A. J., Ragotte, R. J., Milles, L. F., et al. (2023) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06415-8 · Cited by 2,325 · see citing works
Robust deep learning based protein sequence design using ProteinMPNN
Dauparas, J., Anishchenko, I., Bennett, N., Bai, H., Ragotte, R. J., Milles, L. F., Wicky, B. I. M., Courbet, A., de Haas, R. J., Bethel, N., et al. (2022) · doi:10.1101/2022.06.03.494563 · Cited by 2,107 · see citing works
Robust deep learning–based protein sequence design using ProteinMPNN
Dauparas, J., Anishchenko, I., Bennett, N., Bai, H., Ragotte, R. J., Milles, L. F., Wicky, B. I. M., Courbet, A., de Haas, R. J., Bethel, N., et al. (2022) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.add2187 · Cited by 2,070 · see citing works
Large language models generate functional protein sequences across diverse families
Madani, A., Krause, B., Greene, E. R., Subramanian, S., Mohr, B. P., Holton, J. M., Olmos, J. L., Xiong, C., Sun, Z. Z., Socher, R., et al. (2023) · Nature Biotechnology · doi:10.1038/s41587-022-01618-2 · Cited by 1,078 · see citing works
Illuminating protein space with a programmable generative model
Ingraham, J. B., Baranov, M., Costello, Z., Barber, K. W., Wang, W., Ismail, A., Frappier, V., Lord, D. M., Ng-Thow-Hing, C., Van Vlack, E. R., et al. (2023) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06728-8 · Cited by 444 · see citing works
RosettaAntibodyDesign (RAbD): a general framework for computational antibody design
Adolf-Bryfogle, J., Kalyuzhniy, O., Kubitz, M., Weitzner, B. D., Hu, X., Adachi, Y., Schief, W. R., & Dunbrack, R. L. (2018) · PLoS Computational Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006112 · Cited by 227 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
- Authors
- Meador, K., Castells-Graells, R., Aguirre, R., Sawaya, M. R., Arbing, M. A., Sherman, T., Senarathne, C., & Yeates, T. O.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yeates, Todd O.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Structure
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-06
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 751-765.e11
- ISSN
- 0969-2126 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11162342
- OpenAlex
- W4392976128
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 2.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Structure (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Enzyme Structure and Function
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Biochemical and Structural Characterization
- Keywords
- protein cages, protein self-assembly, tetrahedral symmetry, ProteinMPNN, knowledge-based design, protein docking
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
