chemical biology Chemical biology is a scientific discipline between the fields of chemistry and biology. The discipline involves the application of chemical techniques, analysis, and often small molecules produced through synthetic chemistry, to the study and m ...

and

biomolecular engineering Biomolecular engineering is the application of engineering principles and practices to the purposeful manipulation of molecules of biological origin. Biomolecular engineers integrate knowledge of biological processes with the core knowledge of chemi ...

, rational design (RD) is an

umbrella term Hypernymy and hyponymy are the wikt:Wiktionary:Semantic relations, semantic relations between a generic term (''hypernym'') and a more specific term (''hyponym''). The hypernym is also called a ''supertype'', ''umbrella term'', or ''blanket term ...

which invites the strategy of creating new molecules with a certain functionality, based upon the ability to predict how the molecule's structure (specifically derived from motifs) will affect its behavior through physical models. This can be done either from scratch or by making calculated variations on a known structure, and usually complements directed evolution.

Applications

As an example, rational design is used to decipher

collagen Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix of the connective tissues of many animals. It is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up 25% to 35% of protein content. Amino acids are bound together to form a trip ...

stability, mapping ligand-receptor interactions, unveiling protein folding and dynamics, and creating extra-biological structures by using fluorinated

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...

s. To treat

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, rational design is used for targeted therapies where proteins are engineered to modify the communication of cells with their environment. There is also the rational design of alfa-alkyl

auxin Auxins (plural of auxin ) are a class of plant hormones (or plant-growth regulators) with some morphogen-like characteristics. Auxins play a cardinal role in coordination of many growth and behavioral processes in plant life cycles and are essent ...

molecules, which are auxin analogs capable of binding and blocking the formation of the hormone receptor complex. Other applications of rational design include: * Protein design * Nucleic acid design *

Drug design Drug design, often referred to as rational drug design or simply rational design, is the invention, inventive process of finding new medications based on the knowledge of a biological target. The drug is most commonly an organic compound, organi ...

* Pathway design

References

Biotechnology {{biology-stub