Transitioning Proteome Engineering Into a Universal, Programmable Discipline
Proteins are the fundamental execution engines of biology, driving critical functions across agriculture, biotechnology, advanced materials, and environmental sustainability. As the demand for biological resilience and novel bio-manufacturing grows, there is an urgent need to engineer these molecules to operate in entirely new ways. However, current protein engineering is severely constrained by biophysical bottlenecks. Researchers face intractable limits in modifying existing proteins, including the inability to precisely target mature, 3D-folded proteins, a reliance on bespoke chemistry for every new target, and the impossibility of executing multiple edits simultaneously or scaling these interventions into complex tissue models.
To overcome these barriers and accelerate scientific discovery, PENG aims to transition proteome engineering from a collection of isolated, target-specific tools into a universal, programmable discipline. By treating protein editing as dynamic molecular software, PENG will explore and validate advanced methods for modifying existing proteins within a biological system. The program focuses on establishing target-agnostic technologies that enable precise structural and functional changes, tunable reversibility, and robust scalability across a diverse range of proteins and complex cellular environments.
Ultimately, PENG seeks to establish a foundational toolkit that allows researchers to directly and reversibly effect the functional layer of biology. To ensure safety and validation, all research conducted under the PENG program is limited to foundational, bench-top laboratory models and complex in vitro tissue systems (such as organoids). No human testing or clinical trials will be conducted under this program.
