Scientists have created the first completely artificial protein switch that can work inside living cells to modify—or even commandeer—the cell’s complex internal circuitry.
The switch is dubbed LOCKR, short for Latching, Orthogonal Cage/Key pRotein.
Companion papers published July 24 in the journal Nature describe LOCKR’s design and demonstrate several practical applications of the technology. The work was conducted by bioengineering teams led by David Baker at the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design and Hana El-Samad at University of California San Francisco.
