Abstract
In this review, I overview “evolutionary molecular engineering” in these 10 years, and discuss how it will change in the age of “Genome and Proteome”. “Evolutionary molecular engineering” or “in vitro evolution” has emerged at beginning in the 1990's as a basic science asking origin of genes. From the stream, powerful new technologies, such as aptamer selection, peptide-phage selection, shuffling PCR etc. have been invented and, with these technologies, we are now able (i) to evolve existing proteins to desired direction in vitro, and (ii) to create functional peptides de novo. The stream, of course, affected and continues to affect the area of biopharmaceutical. The first artificial biopharmaceutical was a genetically modified insulin that has been approved in 1996. Since then, several artificial proteinous drugs have been approved including Enbrel, Ongak and Infergen. Most of these artificial proteins have been rationally engineered but not evolved in vitro. However, many novel “evolved” are under clinical trials and they should be approved in the near future. I have developed a novel type of protein evolution system, MolCraft. With MolCraft, we can synthesize novel proteins by remixing existing peptide motifs. I will introduce of potentials of MolCraft in biopharmaceuticals and bionanothnology.
