Results of the Protein Engineering Tournament: An Open Science Benchmark for Protein Modeling and Design

Area of Science:

• Computational biology
• Protein engineering
• Biophysics

Background:

• Protein engineering requires robust computational models for sequence design and function prediction.
• Current progress is hindered by limited benchmarking, data, and experimental validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Protein Engineering Tournament, a competition fostering computational approaches in protein engineering.
• To address the need for standardized evaluation and data sharing in the field.

Main Methods:

• A remote competition structure with predictive and generative rounds.
• Predicting biophysical properties from protein sequences.
• Designing, expressing, and characterizing novel protein sequences using automated methods.

Main Results:

• A pilot tournament involved seven design teams and six multi-objective datasets.
• Experimental characterization was provided by International Flavors and Fragrances.
• All data, protocols, and methods were made publicly available.

Conclusions:

• The Protein Engineering Tournament facilitates transparent evaluation of computational protein design.
• Future tournaments aim to further mobilize the scientific community and accelerate progress.