<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ns2:project xmlns:ns1="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api" xmlns:ns2="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/project" xmlns:ns3="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/fund" xmlns:ns4="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/person" xmlns:ns5="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/project/outcome" xmlns:ns6="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/organisation" ns1:created="2026-06-03T15:52:43Z" ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/projects/B64FF836-196F-4102-A9F0-CD9C2D866C24" ns1:id="B64FF836-196F-4102-A9F0-CD9C2D866C24"><ns1:links><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/persons/3D4F2C5F-6C74-46B2-A577-D31B2EDA5A89" ns1:rel="PM_PER"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/A7511831-607B-4196-A226-870292A6A98D" ns1:rel="LEAD_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/819D2412-1CD3-42DF-8E49-4DB3DB75CE74" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/A7511831-607B-4196-A226-870292A6A98D" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:end="2021-06-29T23:00:00Z" ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/funds/23572B3A-4317-4444-A9D0-3945A0DA489C" ns1:rel="FUND" ns1:start="2021-01-01T00:00:00Z"/></ns1:links><ns2:identifiers><ns2:identifier ns2:type="RCUK">74918</ns2:identifier></ns2:identifiers><ns2:title>Machine learning assisted construct design to accelerate protein production.</ns2:title><ns2:status>Closed</ns2:status><ns2:grantCategory>Study</ns2:grantCategory><ns2:leadFunder>UKRI Inn.Scholar</ns2:leadFunder><ns2:abstractText>Drug discovery and biomedical research in academia relies heavily on the production of proteins for example in bioassays, high-throughput screening for novel active compounds and the determination of protein crystal structures. _However, producing and delivering a specific protein to partners in sufficient quality and quantity is often the first and rate-limiting step in the initiation of drug discovery projects._

Protein constructs are currently being designed manually based on the expertise of experienced scientists and require repeated rounds of trial and error optimisations, making this a labour-intensive process. Therefore, the focus of this project will be to accurately predict protein production yield from its constituent amino acid sequences.

To achieve this goal Dr. Dilrini De Silva, a bioinformatician with extensive experience in genomic research will be seconded to AstraZeneca for a period of six months. She will be operating at the intersection of Quantitative Biology (a data science department) and Protein Production teams within AstraZeneca.</ns2:abstractText></ns2:project>