A conference on the new frontier of synthetic biology was held today at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, focusing on the possibility of transforming the functioning of proteins into a programmable language. The keynote address was delivered by Ben Lehner, a leading international figure in systems biology, renowned for his pioneering research into genetics and molecular interactions. Lehner, who coordinates cutting-edge research teams at the Centre for Genomic Regulation and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, based in Barcelona and Cambridge respectively, explained how biology can achieve efficiency comparable to that of computer software.
Drawing inspiration from nature — where organisms such as the cheetah demonstrate self-repair capabilities superior to any machine — Lehner explained that, since the possible variants of a single protein outnumber the atoms in the universe, it is necessary to go beyond the limits of conventional experimentation. Using the ‘Mutate Everything’ method, his research utilises rapid DNA sequencing to test hundreds of thousands of mutations simultaneously, accelerating the pace of scientific discovery and enabling analyses to be carried out in a matter of hours that would once have taken decades.
During the conference, the role of the ‘switches’ hidden on the surface of proteins – a phenomenon known as allostery – was explored in depth. Whilst traditional drugs often attempt to block the vital centres of molecules, the strategy outlined by Lehner aims to regulate their functions by acting from a distance. This approach has already shown extraordinary potential in the fight against cancer, making the KRAS protein a viable target – a key target that had remained without effective treatments for forty years. The ultimate goal of this journey is full integration with artificial intelligence to train models capable of predicting the behaviour of every human protein, enabling therapeutic solutions to be identified directly on the computer.