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Spyro_ t1_irbqxsm wrote

Reply to comment by JigglymoobsMWO in is it possible to synthesize proteins chemically? by yeeturking

> We can make peptides but not proteins.

This is usually true in most cases, but it can be done. I study a relatively small enzyme (~15 kDa) in my research, and there is a paper describing a method to synthetically make the entire enzyme. They even tested the activity of their synthetic enzyme and found it was basically identical to biochemically produced enzyme.

That said, you won’t find me using solid phase peptide synthesis to make this enzyme - E. coli are far better at it than I am!

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Anonate t1_irbvo88 wrote

That's what... 130-140 AA? Where they able to crystallize the proteins? I'd like to see exactly how close the structures are... with a protein that small, I would assume that there aren't many concerns with folding. But I haven't worked in biochem for over a decade, so I'm constantly surprised.

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