As part of Somerscience, a new science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) family festival taking place across Bruton and Castle Cary in South Somerset, BBI Director Prof Dek Woolfson will give the lecture: 'From dark matter to electronic noses: Using synthetic proteins to build new technologies'. 

Proteins are amongst the most complex and versatile molecules on the planet. For around 70 years, scientists have been able to determine the structures of proteins down to atomic detail. This has led to the realisation that protein structures are rich and diverse, which, in part, explains their versatility and many functions in biology. More recently, some scientists have tried to capture and understand the complexity and diversity of proteins by designing completely new proteins from scratch. Frankly, many other scientists thought that these “protein designers” were a little mad and engaged in a fruitless task. However, over the past decade or so, through perseverance, ingenuity, and the application of new experimental and computational methods, protein designers have started to make synthetic proteins successfully. These new proteins are now being used in medicine, biotechnology, and other areas. Dek, an internationally recognised leader in the field of protein design, will describe synthetic proteins that his team have made that go beyond protein structures that occur in nature, and how they are putting these designer proteins to use to make new biosensors to detect diseases like cancer.