Synthetic programmable artificial condensates for enzymatic reactions

Cells contain numerous membraneless organelles, also called biomolecular condensates referring to the liquid-like properties of these condensate droplets.

Intrinsically disordered proteins enrich these condensates, and the presence of enzymes makes these condensates interesting reaction crucibles.

In this project called Synthetic Programmable Artificial Condensates for Enzymatic Reactions (SPACER), I propose to design such organelle that can boost an enzymatic cascade both in vitro and in vivo. For this, a synthetic condensate scaffold protein will be used inspired by a consensus repetitive sequence of resillin.

Such a model offers to twitch the protein length and material properties.

Using the leading technology of the lab in coiled-coil sequences, the aim is to design specific recruitment of enzymes to the scaffold using hetero-dimeric coiled coils with high affinity.

These fundamental building blocks will offer a large but still manageable variety of designs to explore conditions where enzymatic activity could be boosted.

Aiming to further improve this system by designing it in such a way that our synthetic condensates function in cells, it could open up doors for the production of synthetic molecules that are currently challenging to produce in cells such as yeast and e.coli.