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Evolution has led to protein function being highly optimized for specific context. As we start to use the products of evolution in new contexts, we find our current tools can be suboptimal. To address this issue, we have developed a synthetic, viral based approach to drive further evolution of existing proteins to give them new abilities that can be useful for research or medicine. This project involves applying our globally unique mammalian directed evolution platform to design and characterize new synthetic proteins and also further develop directed evolution technologies that allow us to generate new biology. These approaches can be used to generate new genome editing tools, or to design new proteins that can be used as medicines.
A complimentary scholarship for this project may be available through a competitive process. To find out more, refer to the Faculty of Science Postgraduate Research Excellence Award and contact Professor Greg Neely directly.
Research location: Charles Perkins Center
Directed evolution involves generating synthetic circuits where a protein that evolves a new or enhanced activity has an advantage over other proteins that do not have this new trait. This approach is powerful, but until recently has been limited to use in bacterial systems. We have developed a mammalian version of this system, and using this, we can evolve proteins that have new abilities within the mammalian cell. We are using this approach to enhance CRISPR tools, and we are also using this approach to evolve human genes to be used as more potent medicines. The techniques employed in this project include viral-based directed evolution, cellular and molecular biology, CRISPR, fluorescent activated cell sorting, and likely human stem cell derived organoids and / or animal studies.
This project is for PhD candidates
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 3333