[ExI] Fwd: [tt] Genetic Code 2.0: Novel artificial proteins for industry and science

[Bryan Bishop]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arlind Boshnjaku <arlindboshnjaku at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 12:33 AM
Subject: [tt] Genetic Code 2.0: Novel artificial proteins for industry and
science
To: transhumanist news <tt at postbiota.org>


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100630110908.htm
Genetic Code 2.0: Novel Artificial Proteins for Industry and Science

ScienceDaily (June 30, 2010) — The creation of synthetic proteins
plays an important role for economy and science. By the integration of
artificial amino acids in proteins (genetic code engineering), their
already existing qualities can be systematically improved, allowing
new biological features to arise. Now, scientists at the Max Planck
Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) in Martinsried near Munich, Germany,
have succeeded in taking another important step in this research area:
For the first time, they were able to integrate three different
synthetic amino acids into one protein in a single experiment.

The research is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie (June 24, 2010).

Proteins are the main actors in our body: They transport substances,
convey messages or carry out vital processes in their role as
molecular machines. The "helmsmen of the cell" are composed of amino
acids, whose sequence is already defined by the heritable information
in every living being. The translation of this information during the
production of proteins (protein synthesis) is determined by the
genetic code. 20 amino acids form the standard set of which proteins
are built. In natural conditions, however, several hundred amino acids
can be found and, of course, new amino acids can also be produced in
the laboratory. With regard to their properties, they differ from the
20 standard amino acids, because of which, by their integration in
proteins, specific structural and biological characteristics of
proteins can be systematically changed. So far, only one type of
synthetic amino acid could be inserted into a protein during a single
experiment in a residue-specific manner; thus, only one property of a
protein could be modified at once.

Nediljko Budisa, head of the research group Molecular Biotechnology at
the MPIB, has now made important methodical progress in the area of
genetic code engineering. The scientists were able to substitute three
different natural amino acids by synthetic ones at the same time in a
single experiment. The biochemist is pleased: "The research area of
genetic code engineering and code extension has with this result
reached a new development phase."

Budisa's method could be of great importance, particularly for the
industry and economy, because the production of artificial proteins by
genetic code engineering in his view demonstrates a solid basis for
the development of new technologies. "During integration, synthetic
amino acids confer their characteristics to proteins. Thus, the
development will allow the synthesis of totally new classes of
products, whose chemical synthesis has not been possible so far by
conventional protein engineering using only the 20 standard amino
acids," explains Budisa regarding to future prospects. "Thanks to our
method, in the future it will be possible to tailor industrial
relevant proteins with novel properties: for example proteins
containing medical components."
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