First Name
Ajasja
Middle Name
Last Name
Ljubetič
Organization
National Institute of Chemistry (Slovenia)
Job Title
Research Assistant Professor
Email
ajasja.ljubetic@gmail.com
Research Summary
De novo designed dynamic proteins
Research Description
My research group is focused on the design and study of de novo designed dynamic protein assemblies, with a particular emphasis on coiled coil structures. Coiled coils are formed by two or more alpha helices that are wound around each other in a specific way, and they play important roles in many biological processes. During my postdoc in the Baker Lab we have designed a de novo random walker, that uses coiled coils as feet. We are now making the feet rigid in order to enable biased motion and active walking. We are also exploring future applications of this random walker scaffold in order to build useful protein robots. We use the Rosetta software to rigidly fuse coiled coils to de novo designed proteins. This allows us to get the best of both worlds: the binding versatility and orthogonality of coiled coils and the stability and shape variability of designed proteins. By exploring the potential of de novo designed proteins, we hope to make important contributions to the field of biotechnology.
Research Keywords
random walker, fibers, rigid fusions, H-fuse, coiled-coils
Working with Rosetta Since
2014