#21 · Structural bio & protein design

Sequence patterning governs peptide condensation and membrane translocation

The common thread is that sequence features, including patterning, determine how disordered and membrane-active peptides behave. One item applies high-throughput molecular simulations, machine learning and mixed-integer programming to design phase-separating peptides for nanocondensate formation. Another analyzes disordered polypeptides using shuffle-based normalization of SCD and SHD patterning metrics and a Monte Carlo design algorithm yielding tunable phase behavior. A third uses umbrella-sampling MD to show that transferring the LRLLR motif removes the membrane barrier for smacN but raises it for NR2B9c, indicating that sequence compatibility governs translocation. What is new is the explicit demonstration that a transferable motif's membrane-barrier effect depends on its sequence context, and that patterning metrics are being placed on a normalized footing for design.