On-demand creation of high-affinity protein binders without iterative experimental testing

Develop computational design methods that can, on demand, generate high-affinity protein-binding proteins to specified targets without requiring multiple rounds of experimental testing or optimization.

Background

Computational design of de novo protein binders is an important goal in therapeutics and biotechnology, but traditionally achieving high affinity has relied on iterative experimental selection or affinity maturation. The report introduces AlphaProteo and demonstrates strong performance across several targets, yet it frames the broader capability—high-affinity design without repeated experimental cycles—as an ongoing challenge in the field.

Solving this problem would make it feasible to produce highly potent binders tailored to specific epitopes rapidly and at lower cost, enabling many research and translational applications without the need for extensive laboratory optimization.