Enhancing motor protein performance for nanopore DNA sequencing via directed and Darwinian evolutionary approaches

The goal of this project is to identify and develop DNA helicases that are capable of very high performance as motor proteins for nanopore sequencing. Two approaches will be used. The first will involve producing untested helicase proteins from a diverse range of species to identify targets with favourable operating properties (the Darwinian approach). The second will establish an in vivo protocol to generate and screen large numbers of sequence variants of our established helicase targets (the directed approach). Promising hits from both approaches will be subjected to detailed characterisation using a range of biochemical, biophysical and structural techniques.