ArticleNature communications2026
Small-molecule binding and sensing with a designed protein family.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Genetically encoded tools for tracking metabolites in live cells.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Article
- AbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Modular Input-Output Biosensor Design UsingACS sensors · 2026Article
- De Novo Design of Near-Infrared Fluorescence-Activating Proteins.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- The (r)evolution of chemical space and molecular modeling: a time-resolved perspective.Journal of computer-aided molecular design · 2026Review
- Protein design and RNA design: Perspectives.Quantitative biology (Beijing, China) · 2026Article
- A Hybrid Physics-Deep Learning Framework for Combinatorial De Novo Design of Small-Molecule Binding Proteins.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Small-molecule binding and sensing with a designed protein family.Nature communications · 2026Article
- De novo protein design: a transformative frontier in clinical protein applications.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Computational design of dynamic biosensors for emerging synthetic opioids.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Buttressing ligand-binding pockets in de novo designed NTF2-like domains.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2025Article
- Modeling protein-small molecule conformational ensembles with PLACER.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- De Novo Design of High-Performance Cortisol Luminescent Biosensors.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- An improved model for prediction of de novo designed proteins with diverse geometries.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A Designed ZnJournal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Computational design of dynamic biosensors for emerging synthetic opioids.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- De Novo Design of Proteins That Bind Naphthalenediimides, Powerful Photooxidants with Tunable Photophysical Properties.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Efficient Generation of Protein Pockets with PocketGen.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Binding and sensing diverse small molecules using shape-complementary pseudocycles.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
21 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The de novo design of small-molecule-binding proteins holds great promise as a potential tool to develop sensors on-demand for arbitrary small molecules. Here we combine deep learning and physics-based methods to generate a family of proteins with diverse and designable pocket geometries, which we employ to computationally design binders for six small-molecule targets. Biophysical characterization of the designed binders reveals nanomolar to low micromolar binding affinities and atomic-level design accuracy. Additionally, we use a cortisol binder to design a chemically induced dimerization (CID) system that enables the construction of a biosensor for cortisol detection. The approach described here demonstrates the potential of the NTF2 fold and deep learning-based protein design in sensor development, paving the way for future platforms to design binders and sensors for small molecules across analytical, environmental, and biomedical applications.
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Registered trials
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