directed evolution

Synthetic biologists modify naturally occurring amino acid sequences to engineer proteins and enzymes for specific applications.

With the help of directed evolution, scientists inch closer to developing viral vectors that can cross the human blood-brain barrier to deliver gene therapy.

Genetic engineering pioneer Kevin Esvelt’s work highlights biotechnology’s immense potential for good—but also for catastrophe.

Directed evolution approaches are creating new reagents to help a tried-and-true technique reach new heights.

Scientists compared protein engineering with a synthetic library versus error-prone PCR to achieve better variant representation and simpler validation.

The 2018 award goes to Frances Arnold, Gregory Winter, and George Smith.

Researchers tweak bacterial proteins, turning them into powerful enzymes capable of producing silicon-carbon compounds naturally and more efficiently than manmade catalysts.

Using directed evolution, researchers selected a DNA polymerase to copy RNA into DNA.

Caltech’s Frances Arnold is honored for her work on directed evolution.

Directed evolution of a gene therapy virus vector improves its penetration into the retina.

Researchers breed fruit flies that, after 40 generations of conditioning, have acquired the ability to react to numbers.

A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego, has harnessed the body's ability to tweak antibody genes to drive protein evolution in the lab.