The Align Foundation
Published August 12, 2024 | Version v1
Preprint Open

Results of the Protein Engineering Tournament: An Open Science Benchmark for Protein Modeling and Design

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Columbia University
  • 2. Medium Biosciences
  • 3. Align to Innovate
  • 4. International Flavors & Fragrances
  • 5. Seismic Therapeutic
  • 6. ROR icon Harvard Medical School
  • 7. ROR icon Broad Institute
  • 8. ROR icon The Francis Crick Institute

Description

The grand challenge of protein engineering is the development of computational models to characterize and generate protein sequences for arbitrary functions. Progress is limited by lack of 1) benchmarking opportunities, 2) large protein function datasets, and 3) access to experimental protein characterization. We introduce the Protein Engineering Tournament—a fully-remote competition designed to foster the development and evaluation of computational approaches in protein engineering. The tournament consists of an in silico round, predicting biophysical properties from protein sequences, followed by an in vitro round where novel protein sequences are designed, expressed and characterized using automated methods. Upon completion, all datasets, experimental protocols, and methods are made publicly available. We detail the structure and outcomes of a pilot Tournament involving seven protein design teams, powered by six multi-objective datasets, with experimental characterization by our partner, International Flavors and Fragrances. Forthcoming Protein Engineering Tournaments aim to mobilize the scientific community towards transparent evaluation of progress in the field.

Files

Manuscript.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1101/2024.08.12.606135

Dates

Available
2024-08-12
Preprint