Nick Polizzi

Polizzi Lab

Dana Farber Cancer Institute

LC-4312

360 Longwood Ave.

Boston, MA 02215

Email: NicholasF_Polizzi@DFCI.harvard.edu

Website: https://www.polizzilab.org/

Lab Size: Between 5-10

Summary

Most proteins function by first binding a ligand, such as another protein, peptide, or small molecule. The Polizzi laboratory aims to learn the rules of protein–ligand binding through the lens of de novo protein design. In de novo design, a protein’s structure and sequence are computed from first principles. This approach has seen much recent success for the creation of new protein shapes. However, the design of proteins that bind to specific ligands remains an outstanding challenge, due to the additional degrees of freedom introduced by a ligand and the subtle balance of energetics. In order to design functional proteins, we must first crack the “binding code.”

Publications