Sintija Stevanoska and Sašo Džeroski collaborated in discovery and development of a new technology for regulating the action of different proteins

19/01/2024

Sintija Stevanoska and Professor Sašo Džeroski from the Department of knowledge technologies of the Jožef Stefan Institute collaborated with researchers from the National Institute of Chemistry to discover and develop a new technology for regulating the action of different proteins, called INSRTR. They used machine learning methods to facilitate the selection of the peptide insertion positions within this technology, allowing the selection to be tailored to the target protein. The INSRTR technology allows the regulation of the action of a protein via the insertion of short peptides, similar to transistors in electronic circuits.  This technology can be used to activate or inactivate selected protein functions, and even combine such functions to perform logical operations in living cells. The technology could have therapeutic and other biotechnological applications. It was showcased in human cells on several enzymes, proteins in cell signalling, DNA recognition, and antibodies that guide cancer immunotherapy. The paper appears in Cell Discovery, a journal of the Nature group.