Engineered proteins are synthetic novel proteins (not found in nature) that are designed to fulfill a predetermined biological function. Such proteins can be used as molecular markers, inhibitory agents, or drugs. We present a massively parallel computational tool for designing inhibitory proteins that are predicted to interact with a given target protein (and may inhibit the target’s cellular functions) while leaving non-target proteins unaffected (to minimize side-effects).

In collaboration with the Ottawa Research Hospital, we have been designing protein-based drugs for muscular dystrophy treatments and are currently developing a protein-based drug to stop the interaction between the COVID spike protein and the human ACE2 protein.