2 research outputs found
Synthesis Cost-Optimal Targeted Mutant Protein Libraries
Protein variant libraries produced by site-directed mutagenesis are a useful
tool utilized by protein engineers to explore variants with potentially
improved properties, such as activity and stability. These libraries are
commonly built by selecting residue positions and alternative beneficial
mutations for each position. All possible combinations are then constructed and
screened, by incorporating degenerate codons at mutation sites. These
degenerate codons often encode additional unwanted amino acids or even STOP
codons. Our study aims to take advantage of annealing based recombination of
oligonucleotides during synthesis and utilize multiple degenerate codons per
mutation site to produce targeted protein libraries devoid of unwanted
variants. Toward this goal we created an algorithm to calculate the minimum
number of degenerate codons necessary to specify any given amino acid set, and
a dynamic programming method that uses this algorithm to optimally partition a
DNA target sequence with degeneracies into overlapping oligonucleotides, such
that the total cost of synthesis of the target mutant protein library is
minimized. Computational experiments show that, for a modest increase in DNA
synthesis costs, beneficial variant yields in produced mutant libraries are
increased by orders of magnitude, an effect particularly pronounced in large
combinatorial libraries
Prompting for Discovery: Flexible Sense-Making for AI Art-Making with Dreamsheets
Design space exploration (DSE) for Text-to-Image (TTI) models entails
navigating a vast, opaque space of possible image outputs, through a
commensurately vast input space of hyperparameters and prompt text. Minor
adjustments to prompt input can surface unexpectedly disparate images. How can
interfaces support end-users in reliably steering prompt-space explorations
towards interesting results? Our design probe, DreamSheets, supports
exploration strategies with LLM-based functions for assisted prompt
construction and simultaneous display of generated results, hosted in a
spreadsheet interface. The flexible layout and novel generative functions
enable experimentation with user-defined workflows. Two studies, a preliminary
lab study and a longitudinal study with five expert artists, revealed a set of
strategies participants use to tackle the challenges of TTI design space
exploration, and the interface features required to support them - like using
text-generation to define local "axes" of exploration. We distill these
insights into a UI mockup to guide future interfaces.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, currently under revie