Jiayi Dou, PhDAssistant Professor

Our goal is to develop protein-based tools to advance neuroscience and neurotechnology. We achieve this by creating de novo proteins that function inside the animal brain. Unlike naturally occurring proteins that are products of millions-of-years natural evolution, de novo proteins are designed computationally based on the first principles. While natural proteins carry out multiple biological roles shaped by evolution, de novo proteins have unique advantages as molecular tools to study complex biological systems due to their structural and functional simplicity. Boosted by the latest deep learning techniques, computational protein design is gaining access to the entire protein sequence space to generate a diverse set of functional proteins, which is not limited by incremental mutation accumulation in the laboratory-directed or natural evolution. 

By designing proteins that have never existed before and testing them in living cells, we push the boundaries of computational protein design and make contributions to the exciting field of biotechnology. By focusing on developing protein-based tools rooted in cellular and molecular neurophysiology, we accelerate the speed of solving long-standing puzzles of the brain and foster collaborations with neurobiologists. Specifically, our lab is working on 1. designing and testing de novo light-responsive proteins to expand the optogenetic toolbox, 2. designing and optimizing de novo ion channels for modulating neural activities, and 3. designing and applying light-controlled membrane fusion tools to intra- and inter-neuronal information processing.