Klara Hlouchova´s team gets HFSP Young Investigator grant
The specific aim of the funded project is to test whether folded and functional proteins can be built using only the “early” amino acids and what additional properties could be conferred by the inclusion of other prebiotically available non-canonical amino acids. The team wants to understand whether the inclusion (or exclusion) of specific amino acids was necessary for protein evolution to be as successful or whether comparable repertoire of protein structures/functions could have been constructed using alternative alphabets.
The outcomes of the study should explain why certain amino acids (and not others) were selected to construct proteins and whether alternative scenarios could be possible. Each team member enters the project with a key set of skills and scientific expertise. Klara and her team have a strong background in protein biochemistry, bioinformatics and experience with expression of protein libraries. Kosuke is an astrobiologist with strong experience in RNA molecular biology and his team takes a synthetic biology approach to studying peptide-RNA interactions. Stephen has experience in biophysics and synthetic biology and his newly started lab performs research in protein folding and engineering. The awarded project relies on synergy of the above mentioned disciplines connected by the team’s mutual interest in the origins of life, making it possible to address a broad fundamental biological question in a systematic way.
The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) is an international program of research support, funding frontier research on the complex mechanisms of living organisms. Research is funded at all levels of biological complexity from biomolecules to the interactions between organisms.
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