Design a binding pocket for the biotin ligand! Biotin is an important vitamin, and is necessary for the regular function of many metabolic proteins. One bacterial protein called streptavidin binds to the biotin ligand extremely tightly. The biotin-streptavidin pair is well known for being one of the tightest ligand-binding interactions in all of biology. We'd like to design proteins that can bind ligands just as tightly, but this is a difficult protein design challenge. The streptavidin protein has a binding pocket that fits closely around biotin ligand and satisfies all of its buried polar atoms, and this is essential for the tight binding between the two molecules.
In this puzzle, players are challenged to design a binding pocket for biotin. We've provided the streptavidin backbone as the starting structure, but players can completely redesign the protein or reposition the ligand within the binding pocket. Try to design a binding pocket with high Contact Surface and zero BUNS! See the puzzle comments for Objective details.
Contact Surface Metric (max +2000)
Measures how much of your binder surface is in close contact with the target protein. The goal Contact Surface is 200 or more.
Buried Unsats (max +500)
Penalizes 100 points for each polar atom that cannot make any hydrogen bonds.