Abstract

Exploring structure space to understand stability Understanding the determinants of protein stability is challenging because native proteins have conformations that are optimized for function. Proteins designed without functional bias could give insight into how structure determines stability, but this requires a large sample size. Rocklin et al. report a high-throughput protein design and characterization method that allows them to measure thousands of miniproteins (see the Perspective by Woolfson et al. ). Iterative rounds of design and characterization increased the design success rate from 6 to 47%, which provides insight into the balance of forces that determine protein stability. Science , this issue p. 168 ; see also p. 133