New Chemistry and New Opportunities from the Expanding Protein Universe

A select group of 40 eminent scientists from all parts of the world met to consider the current state of chemical and biological knowledge on the ever-expanding protein universe, and to discuss emerging opportunities for the foreseeable future. Scientific approaches to discover, characterize, and regulate protein functions were discussed over a range of disciplines, including natural product chemistry, microbiology, enzymology, biochemistry, structural biology, chemical biology, and glycobiology. Some notable highlights included discovery of new enzymatic pathways, innovative carbohydrate chemistry, design of proteins containing unnatural amino acids, structural elucidation of complex supramolecular machines, and design and application of small molecule drugs, biologics and biosimilars. This fascinating compendium of scientific presentations and in-depth discussions affords a unique perspective on today's protein chemistry and biology as well as on the challenges for tomorrow.November 14, 2014 Contents: New Chemistry in the Expanding Protein Universe: Novel Chemistry Still to be Found in Nature (C T Walsh) Natural Product Biosynthesis in the Genomic Age (W A van der Donk) Peptide Dendrimers and Polycyclic Peptides (J-L Reymond) What can Comparative Genomics Reveal about the Mechanisms of Protein Function Evolution? (N L Dawson, R Studer, N Furnham, D Lees, S Das, J Thornton and C Orengo) Exploring Chromatin Biology Using Protein Chemistry (T W Muir) Our Expanding Protein Universe (A Godzik) The Scientific Impact of Freely Available Chemical Probes (A M Edwards) Discussions of Session 1 Exploring Enzyme Families and Enzyme Catalysis: Mechanistic Enzymology and Catalyst Design (D Hilvert) Looking in New Directions for the Origins of Enzymatic Rate Accelerations (J P Klinman) Computational Enzyme Design and Methods to Predict the Role of Remote Mutations (K N Houk) Discovering Novel Enzymes, Metabolites and Pathways (J A Gerlt) Programming New Chemistry into the Genetic Code of Cells and Animals (J W Chin) Expanding the Enzyme Universe through a Marriage of Chemistry and Evolution (F H Arnold) Controlled Radical Reactions in Biology and the Importance of Metallo-Cofactor Biosynthesis (J Stubbe) Discussions of Session 2 Microbiomes and Carbohydrate Chemistry: Structural Basis for Host/Commensal-Microbe Interactions in the Human Distal Gut Microbiome (I A Wilson) Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biology (C-H Wong) Chemical Biological Proteomics of Bacterial Protein Functionalities in the Human Distal Gut Microbiome (D W Wolan) Automated Oligosaccharide Synthesis: From Insights into Fundamental Glycobiology to Vaccines and Diagnostics (P H Seeberger) Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes in Microbiomes (B Henrissat) The Microbiome(s): Microbiota, Families, Functions (A Godzik) N-Linked Protein Glycosylation (M Aebi) Discussions of Session 3 GPCRs and Transporters: Ligands, Cofactors, Drug Development: GPCRs and Transporters: Ligands, Cofactors, Drug Development (G von Heijne) Studies of GPCR Conformations in Non-Crystalline Milieus (K Wüthrich) The Seven Transmembrane Superfamily (R C Stevens) Nanobodies for the Structural and Functional Investigation of GPCR Transmembrane Signaling (E Pardon and J Steyaert) The Hidden Pharmacology of the Human GPCR-ome (B L Roth) Structures and Reaction Mechanisms of ABC Transporters (K Locher) Discussions of Session 4 Biologicals and Biosimilars: Biologicals and Biosimilars (S Ghose and M G Grütter) Platform Technologies for the Artificial Pseudo-Natural Product Discovery (H Suga) Anticalins® & Pasylation®: New Concepts for Biopharmaceutical Drug Development from Protein Design (A Skerra) From Natural Antibodies to Synthetic Proteins (S S Sidhu) From Intact Antibodies to Armed Antibodies (D Neri) Regulating Cellular Life Death and Development Using Intracellular Combinatorial Antibody Libraries (R Lerner, J Xie, H Zhang, K Yea, J Blanchard and K Baldwin) Nanobodies: A Universe of Variable Domains and a Toolbox...