Proteins with a built-in clock
Designs that the cell clears on a schedule, so an experiment can have a defined start and end.
Code
KS-04
Year
2026
Status
Ongoing
Modality
Protein design · flow cytometry
Funding
National Research Foundation
Team
Priya Nair, Sten Lindqvist
Metric
5 days
Measured
designed lifetime
Why a clock
Many experiments need a protein present for a defined window. Controlling that in the design is cleaner than controlling it by hand.
How it works
Each design carries a tag that the cell’s recycling machinery reads slowly. Changing three amino acids in the tag moves the lifetime between two and nine days.
Where we are
Measured lifetimes match our predictions within half a day across three cell lines. Next we test whether that holds in organoids.
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