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The goal all along has been to design proteins with a specific structure. This can be applied to just about any area of biology. You could design novel antige

The goal all along has been to design proteins with a specific structure. This can be applied to just about any area of biology. You could design novel antigens to combat disease, and then easily mass-produce them. Or just inject the RNA to have the body produce them. But the applications are boundless, from genetically modifying crops, to anti-aging, and more. It is also one of the key pathways to molecular nanotechnology, where instead of building arbitrary structures out of amino acids, we increase the range of arbitrary molecules we can design, build, and produce in quantity.

spywaregorilla 5y ago
Is it the structure that's important? Or is the structure just a way to combine certain amino acids in a stable manner and its the combination of acids that we care about? Or is structure just a way of saying a specific permutation of amino acids?
- ansible 5y ago
  The structure is the whole point. As I understand it, you can link together nearly arbitrary sequences of amino acids. But a random string of AAs will just result in a jumbled protein that doesn't do anything useful. Specific structures are useful in all manner of ways, from cleaving a DNA molecule at a specific point, enzymes for breaking apart molecules, etc. Very, very useful.
  - vokep 5y ago
    >Very, very useful. Just to frame it a particular way, biological systems are basically solved nanotechnology, extremely good, self-sustaining, resilient little machines that have spent a long time optimizing to be better and better. But all the designs are preset, if we can crack the code and design our own little machines, then amazing things like more plastic-like cellulose could be made, all sorts of problems are suddenly far easier to solve. But also a lot of new problems emerge that weren't even imaginable before, since the code being cracked is a big chunk of the code of life itself. So, yknow, playing God and all, so there probably will be some negative consequences of this too.
    - ansible 5y ago
      Yes, I agree with all this. Generally speaking molecular nanotechnology will solve all the "intractable" problems we as a society face today: climate change, poverty, biological death from old age / disease / cancer, and more. We could also create tools of destruction so vast, it can be hard to contemplate.
- jweather 5y ago
  Structure is function at this level. Many proteins simply provide binding sites for a specific molecule. Others have multiple binding sites and combine molecules together into larger ones. All of these interactions are governed by the positions of the atoms in the protein, creating a 3D "lock and key" model for specific molecules to fit.

spywaregorilla 5y ago

Is it the structure that's important? Or is the structure just a way to combine certain amino acids in a stable manner and its the combination of acids that we care about? Or is structure just a way of saying a specific permutation of amino acids?

ansible 5y ago
The structure is the whole point. As I understand it, you can link together nearly arbitrary sequences of amino acids. But a random string of AAs will just result in a jumbled protein that doesn't do anything useful. Specific structures are useful in all manner of ways, from cleaving a DNA molecule at a specific point, enzymes for breaking apart molecules, etc. Very, very useful.
- vokep 5y ago
  >Very, very useful. Just to frame it a particular way, biological systems are basically solved nanotechnology, extremely good, self-sustaining, resilient little machines that have spent a long time optimizing to be better and better. But all the designs are preset, if we can crack the code and design our own little machines, then amazing things like more plastic-like cellulose could be made, all sorts of problems are suddenly far easier to solve. But also a lot of new problems emerge that weren't even imaginable before, since the code being cracked is a big chunk of the code of life itself. So, yknow, playing God and all, so there probably will be some negative consequences of this too.
  - ansible 5y ago
    Yes, I agree with all this. Generally speaking molecular nanotechnology will solve all the "intractable" problems we as a society face today: climate change, poverty, biological death from old age / disease / cancer, and more. We could also create tools of destruction so vast, it can be hard to contemplate.
jweather 5y ago
Structure is function at this level. Many proteins simply provide binding sites for a specific molecule. Others have multiple binding sites and combine molecules together into larger ones. All of these interactions are governed by the positions of the atoms in the protein, creating a 3D "lock and key" model for specific molecules to fit.