Now, US researchers have overcome this with a versatile computational system called Goose (Generate disOrdered prOteins Specifying propErties), which rapidly generates thousands of new disordered protein regions per minute that can be tested in cells to reveal distinct sequence-to-function relationships.<\/p>\n
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\u2018The ability to design disordered proteins at a large scale with our platform now allows us to learn how their component sequences affect the cell,\u2019 says project co-leader Ryan Emenecker<\/a> at Washington University in St Louis, US. \u2018It gives us a lens through which we can learn how naturally occurring changes in these proteins might drive diseases like cancer.\u2019<\/p>\n To develop Goose, the researchers built a vast library amino-acid sequences that are associated with specific cell functions. By requesting specified properties \u2013 including charge, hydrophobicity, sequence length and predicted interactions \u2013 machine learning was used to generate thousands of new disordered region sequences within seconds. These could then be tested for function in genetically engineered cells.<\/p>\n \u2018We can now map the way amino acids are arranged in intrinsically disordered proteins to their function,\u2019 says Shahar Sukenik<\/a> at Syracuse University, US, another co-leader of the project. To test Goose, the team designed and synthesised novel disordered proteins that could self-assemble inside cells, sense changes in their environment, and protect yeast cells from dehydration, some working better than natural proteins.<\/p>\n Full screen in popup<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Shahar Sukenik and Trevor Brandt helped to develop the Goose tool for designing intrinsically disordered proteins<\/p>\n Source: \u00a9 Syracuse University<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Lea Day (left) and Kara Hunter (right) worked on the project at Sukenik’s lab at Syracuse University<\/p>\n Source: \u00a9 Syracuse University<\/p>\n \u2018This opens the possibility of being able to make new sensors that are sensitive to things outside what natural sequences would be attuned to, like toxins or cell damage,\u2019 Emenecker says. \u2018It has the potential to be very valuable.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018The key advance is making disorder experimentally programmable,\u2019 comments Kejia Wu<\/a>, who investigates intrinsically disordered proteins in 2024 Nobel laureate David Baker<\/a>\u2019s lab at the University of Washington in Seattle, US.\u2019 The paper therefore treats disorder not as a problem to overcome, but as a design variable.\u2019<\/p>\n Wu says the live-cell results are \u2018particularly informative\u2019 because some of the disordered proteins behaved unexpectedly beyond sequence information, possibly because of interactions with RNA or other cellular components, she suggests. \u2018This emphasises that an intrinsically disordered region\u2019s behaviour is determined not only by its sequence, but also by its partners, localisation and cellular environment.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018The study remains a proof of principle rather than a general solution to predicting IDR function, adds Wu. \u2019I see Goose as an enabling experimental platform rather than a finished predictive theory. I look forward to seeing how this advances.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new computational tool can design disordered proteins and decipher their function. The work could help scientists unravel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-604244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/550808_shaharsukenikandtrevorbrandt_618042.jpg\")
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