Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40011747›Full record

ArticleNature structural & molecular biology2025

Local structural flexibility drives oligomorphism in computationally designed protein assemblies.

Alena Khmelinskaia, Neville P Bethel, Farzad Fatehi, Bhoomika Basu Mallik, Aleksandar Antanasijevic, Andrew J Borst, Szu-Hsueh Lai, Ho Yeung Chim, Jing Yang 'John' Wang, Marcos C Miranda and 10 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature structural & molecular biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Polymorphism in Self-Assembly of Short Peptoid Sequences.Polymer science & technology (Washington, D.C.) · 2026
    Article
  4. Review
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Flexing protein assemblies.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2025
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Atomically accurate de novo design of antibodies with RFdiffusion.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

20 authors.

Alena KhmelinskaiaDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. akhmelin@cup.lmu.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1584-9800
Neville P Bethel *Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7576-9613
Farzad Fatehi *Department of Mathematics, University of York, York, UK.
Bhoomika Basu MallikTransdisciplinary Research Areas 'Building Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions', University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0592-4267
Aleksandar AntanasijevicDepartment of Integrative, Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Andrew J BorstDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4297-7824
Szu-Hsueh LaiBijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Ho Yeung ChimDepartment of Chemistry, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Jing Yang 'John' WangDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Marcos C MirandaDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2839-6997
Andrew M WatkinsPrescient Design, Genentech, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Cassandra OgoharaDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Shane CaldwellDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9518-0168
Mengyu WuDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Albert J R HeckBijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2405-4404
David VeeslerDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6019-8675
Andrew B WardScripps Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7153-3769
David BakerDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7896-6217
Reidun TwarockDepartment of Mathematics, University of York, York, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1824-2003
Neil P KingDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. neilking@uw.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2978-4692

Funding

CHEETAH Center for the Structural Biology of HIV Infection, Restriction, and Viral DynamicsU54AI170856 · NIAID · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · PI WALTHER H MOTHES · 2022 to 2026
$34.4M
User Training and OutreachP30GM124169 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIF-LAWRENC BERKELEY LAB · PI PAUL David ADAMS, Gregory L Hura · 2017 to 2026
$28.6M
Centers for Research on Structural Biology of Infectious Diseases: Universal Influenza Vaccine Research75N93022C00036 · NIAID · SEATTLE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL · PI STAKER, BART · 2022 to 2025
$21.7M
Structure-based design of broadly protective coronavirus vaccinesP01AI167966 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI Neil King · 2022 to 2026
$15.3M
Unraveling the bat humoral immune response against zoonotic viruses to guide the design of next-generation therapeuticsDP1AI158186 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI VEESLER, DAVID · 2020 to 2024
$5.4M
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation INV-002916Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation INV-010680NIAID NIH HHS 75N93022C00036NIAID NIH HHS DP1 AI158186NIAID NIH HHS P01 AI167966NIAID NIH HHS U54 AI170856NIGMS NIH HHS P30 GM124169Wellcome Trust
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Many naturally occurring protein assemblies have dynamic structures that allow them to perform specialized functions. Although computational methods for designing novel self-assembling proteins have advanced substantially over the past decade, they primarily focus on designing static structures. Here we characterize three distinct computationally designed protein assemblies that exhibit unanticipated structural diversity arising from flexibility in their subunits. Cryo-EM single-particle reconstructions and native mass spectrometry reveal two distinct architectures for two assemblies, while six cryo-EM reconstructions for the third likely represent a subset of its solution-phase structures. Structural modeling and molecular dynamics simulations indicate that constrained flexibility within the subunits of each assembly promotes a defined range of architectures rather than nonspecific aggregation. Redesigning the flexible region in one building block rescues the intended monomorphic assembly. These findings highlight structural flexibility as a powerful design principle, enabling exploration of new structural and functional spaces in protein assembly design.

Indexed as

Protein EngineeringProteinsCryoelectron MicroscopyMass SpectrometryModels, MolecularMolecular Dynamics SimulationProtein ConformationProteins

Identifiers

PMID40011747
PMCPMC12170342

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.