The Director of the Bristol BioDesign Institute, Prof Dek Woolfson, has been appointed Director of a new Centre for Protein Design (CPD) at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH). The CPD is a joint venture between UCPH and the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF). It is funded by a 700m DKK (≈£80m) grant to Dek from the NNF, initially for seven years and starting on 1 August 2025.
Protein design is a rapidly growing field that aims to make completely new “synthetic proteins” from scratch using biochemical knowledge and computational tools. It has the potential to create protein structures and functions that do not exist in nature, including new proteins that could detect and treat disease, and others to tackle environmental issues such as breaking down plastics and other pollutants.
The mission of the CPD is to advance fundamental understanding of protein structure and function to enable frontier protein design. It will do this by interfacing with the basic sciences – biology, chemistry, computer science, and physics – to create an open and collaborative environment for interdisciplinary and highly collaborative research. The CPD will also engage experts from other fields – such as biotechnology, medicine, and pharmacology – to generate designed proteins to address challenges in healthcare and sustainability. Through these activities, the CPD will train a new generation of protein scientists to realise their own potential, and to develop the many possibilities for protein design in discovery science, innovation, and translation.
The CPD will be an outwardly facing Centre. As well as interactions across Copenhagen and Denmark, the CPD will reach out internationally through Research Spokes. The first of these will be at the University of Bristol. This builds on Dek’s leadership in synthetic and engineering biology through initiatives like BrisSynBio and the Bristol BioDesign Institute. The Spoke aims to maintain and grow links between Bristol and the CPD and its other partners through researcher exchanges and annual joint conferences. To help promote and sustain the Bristol Spoke, Dek will retain a part-time position in Chemistry and Biochemistry, spending one week each month in Bristol.
Dek said, “This is an extremely timely and exciting opportunity to take the next and important steps in the rapidly growing field of protein design. I am extremely honoured to have been selected to lead the CPD, and I’m looking forward to the challenges and possibilities that it presents. I also feel proud of all that we have achieved at Bristol through successful initiatives like BrisSynBio and the BBI. The CPD will build on these, and I am looking forward to forging wider international collaborations between Bristol, the new Centre, and the University of Copenhagen. This will lead to new collaborations, discoveries and innovations across the two institutions.”