# Designing proteins with arbitrary function

- kind: problem
- status: partial
- year: 1988

**Statement.** Can we design a protein from scratch to carry out any chosen chemical function?

De novo design, pioneered by David Baker's lab, now routinely produces binders and new folds. Designing enzymes that match natural catalytic efficiency remains much harder.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Protein design](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_design)

[Molecules of life](/wiki/Space:molecules-of-life.md) · [Chemistry and matter](/wiki/Continent:chemistry.md)

## Relations to this page

- related to [protein-structure-prediction](/wiki/Problem:protein-structure-prediction.md) — The original curation links this problem to Designing proteins with arbitrary function; the argument for the link has not been written yet.

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