ABSTRACT
This chapter stimulates ideas for protein engineering applications by providing a working overview of the methodology, design, strategies and evaluation procedures required. The development of AdLib tablets is of potential interest to most of us, and furnishes an excellent case study (mythical but plausible) of a protein engineering breakthrough. The most commonly used of recombinant DNA techniques will be described, together with procedures for random mutagenesis and for the introduction of non-natural amino acids. The production of a heat-stable form of the bacterial proteinase subtilisin for use in biological detergents provides a case study that illustrates the potential of random mutagenesis, and also demonstrates the astonishing subtlety of protein structural changes that can be involved. The chapter concerns the nuts and bolts of protein engineering, and with an indication of the types of application to which they may be directed.
