Future Food Proteins

Purpose and goal

The purpose of this project is to create and test new protein design tools with application to food proteins. We aim to create variants of a key milk-based food protein that have both enhanced solubility as well as other biophysical properties. We will thus expand the scope of protein design to tackle protein properties that we see as important for promoting fermentation as a source of food proteins in the future.

Expected effects and result

A primary output from the project is a research article describing novel computational workflows for protein design applied to a food protein (milk protein), as well as the experimental testing of these algorithms in predicting key biophysical properties, such as solubility. We expect these results to stimulate the use of protein design tools in food applications. A second output is a perspective article describing how protein design can advance synthetic proteins as food or feed sources.

Planned approach and implementation

The project combines computational protein design and synthetic biology to create and screen a panel of food proteins with altered sequences. Data from the project will inform machine-learning models for future improvement. The project partially supports a postdoc and graduate student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, with in-kind support from experts in protein design at Stockholm University. The project is a connected to the initiative KTH Food.