Rational and "irrational" design of proteins and their use in biotechnology

A familiar refrain within industrial circles is better, faster, and cheaper. Efforts to place this mantra into practice within the biotechnology industry has brought a focus on protein engineering as one method to create new products quickly and inexpensively. Typically, protein engineering has utilized either rational design or combinatorial methods, both of which have been explored and improved in recent years. Continued advancement in these two areas and their application to an increasing list of industrially and medically important processes mean that the number of "synthetic" proteins displacing old technologies is likely to grow at an amazing rate over the next few years. We discuss some of the technologies available for protein redesign and illustrate these with examples from the biocatalysis, biosensor, and therapeutic fields.