Catalytic Soft-Matter Synthetic Biology

Biological soft-matters (e.g. RNA, protein and their combination) with phase transition are discovered to play a key and often unexpected or not yet understood roles in fundamental biological processes (e.g. gene expression and cellular stress responses) and many diseases (e.g. Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases). Presently, the research is mostly focused on protein phase transition and aggregation related to cellular granules, membrane-less organelles, and diseases. For the first time, we identified a globular and pure enzymatic protein showing stimuli-responsive and reversible phase transition (gel formation) with a rare low critical transition temperature (LCST). It has structural features (e.g. without IDRs) distinct from most known phase transition proteins. We are carrying out multidisciplinary in vivo and in vitro studies of such smart biomolecules and systems (phase separation proteins and their combination with DNA and RNA), aiming at exploring Catalytic Soft-matters Synthetic Biology as a new research area with broad application possibilities in biosynthesis, medicine, biomaterials, and future food.

Selected literature
1. J. Nie, X. Zhang, W. Wang, J. Ren and A.-P. Zeng (2021) Tunable protein hydrogels: Present state and emerging development. Adv. Biochem. Bioeng/Biotechnol., 178, 63-98.
2. J. Nie*, X. Zhang*, M. Schroer, Y. Liu, W. Wang, J. Ren, D. Svergun and A.-P. Zeng (2021) The enzyme lipoate-protein ligase A of E. coli forms a novel stimuli-responsive pure protein hydrogel with novel structure and enzymatic activity. bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.07.430034.