Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
The primary basic research interests of the group are: (A) the informational aspect of the protein-folding problem; that is, how does the sequence of a protein determine its active, three-dimensional structure or fold? And (B), how can we use this information to design completely new proteins from scratch? In addition, we design proteins for applications in synthetic biology and medicine.
We tackle these problems using the following multi-disciplinary approach:
- We use bioinformatics to garner sequence-to-structure relationships from protein sequence and structural databases.
- We test the relationships ("rules for protein folding") that we find in two ways: (a) through ab initio protein-structure prediction; and (b) via rational protein design, where we engineer natural protein structures, or design new ones completely from scratch (so-called de novo design).
- We then test our engineered and design proteins experimentally using biophysical methods. The peptides and proteins are made either by peptide synthesis, or via recombinant DNA methods and the expression of synthetic genes. The products and then characterised using methods including: solution-phase biophysics (CD, FT-IR and fluorescence spectroscopy, AUC and ITC); high-resolution structural biology (NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography); and microscopy (EM, AFM and light microscopy).
- Finally, we explore potential applications of some the engineered and designed proteins in the burgeoning fields of bionanotechnology and synthetic biology.
Professor Woolfson is a supervisor in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Chemical Synthesis
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Projects
Design and in vivo assembly of switchable protein-protein interactions for transcription regulation
1/12/18 → 30/11/22
Project: Research
Rational computational protein design in ISAMBARD: new approaches, folds and functions
1/05/18 → 30/04/22
Project: Research
Developing libraries for orthosteric inhibition of protein-protein interactions by mimicry of hot-spot constellations.
1/02/16 → 31/01/21
Project: Research
Research Output
Self-assembling cages from coiled-coil peptide modules
Fletcher, J. M., Harniman, R. L., Barnes, F. R. H., Boyle, A. L., Collins, A. M., Mantell, J., Sharp, T. H., Antognozzi, M., Booth, P. J., Linden, N., Miles, M. J., Sessions, R. B., Verkade, P. & Woolfson, D. N., 3 May 2013, In : Science. 340, 6132, p. 595-599 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal)
Rational design and application of responsive α-helical peptide hydrogels
Banwell, EF., Abelardo, ES., Adams, DJ., Birchall, MA., Corrigan, A., Donald, AM., Kirkland, M., Serpell, LC., Butler, MF. & Woolfson, DN., Jul 2009, In : Nature Materials. 8, p. 596-600 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal)
n→π* interactions in proteins
Bartlett, G. J., Choudhary,, A., Raines, R. T. & Woolfson, D. N., Jul 2010, In : Nature Chemical Biology. 6, p. 615 - 620 6 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal)
Datasets
Data from Baker et al, Accounts of Chemical Research 2017
Woolfson, D. N. (Creator), Bartlett, G. J. (Creator) & Baker, E. (Creator), University of Bristol, 15 Aug 2017
DOI: 10.5523/bris.1gefaj9sba0dt2fhglr6fyicjh, http://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/1gefaj9sba0dt2fhglr6fyicjh
Dataset
Activities
Computationally Directed Protein Design Workshop
Dek Woolfson (Participant), Fabio Parmeggiani (Participant), Ross Anderson (Participant), Kathleen Sedgley (Participant) & Tom Bowker (Participant)
2018
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Inaugural Bristol BioDesign Institute Conference
Kathleen R Sedgley (Participant), Dek Woolfson (Organiser), Imre Berger (Organiser), Katharina Landfester (Keynote/plenary speaker) & Nadrian Seeman (Keynote/plenary speaker)
10 May 2018
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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