It is our job at Serotiny. We take plain-language requests for proteins with novel functions (not just binds more tightly, or produces this enzymatic product over that one), and we use the catalog of existing natural protein components to build you a protein that has those desired capabilities.

Imagine any natural input that life can read (light, heat, glucose levels, hormone levels, force, etc.) and any natural output that life can produce (temp, colors, fluorescence, electrical impulse, etc.). For many of those options, we can design a novel protein that achieves a linkage between that I/O.

However, our approach to the problem is very much not like AlphaFolds - we don't try to scan the 20^600 space by changing individual amino acids, but rather we don't worry about folding or structure (too much) and instead play around with discreet functional modules that already exist in nature. Our approach is a bit more sociological than it is a simulation of physics/chemistry. But it works.

Optogenetics tools, CARs, SynNotches, BaseEditors are all curious examples, and there are many more coming online right now.