[nojvek]

Here’s a noob question. The coronavirus is made out of a whole bunch of proteins. Have we fully mapped out all the protein structures and corresponding DNA code?

The antigen is also a protein, I assume the DNA sequence for it is well known. Right?

How far are we in terms of tech to print custom proteins from arbitrary DNA sequences?

Is understanding protein folding and protein to protein interaction the holy grail of making massive improvements in molecular biology? What are the big unsolved problems?

Like if we know the virus’s DNA and it’s 3D protein architecture, we can solve for antigen proteins in a computer that outputs possible DNA sequences and we can manufacture them the next day in a protein printer. How far away are we to that future?

[biophetik]

Protein folding is part of it. The other is finding which parts are antigenic to the immune cells. Epitope mapping is a common method to screen small bits of the proteins to see if any are hits for immune cells to recognize and kill. There are algorithms that can take the RNA/DNA, predict proteins, and then guess a percentage of those that may be important. But you still need to synthesize those in mass quantities and start testing each. Once you have candidates you then test them in mouse models (typically) to see if they actually provide an immune response. If interested check out the iedb. https://www.iedb.org/

[hcknwscommenter]

"Have we fully mapped out all the protein structures and corresponding DNA code [of the COVID-19 virus]?"

Yes

"The antigen is also a protein, I assume the DNA sequence for it is well known. Right?"

Yes

"How far are we in terms of tech to print custom proteins from arbitrary DNA sequences?"

Generally that is something a first year graduate student can accomplish.

"Is understanding protein folding and protein to protein interaction the holy grail of making massive improvements in molecular biology? What are the big unsolved problems?"

There are too many unsolved problems to count. There have been great advances lately in de novo prediction of protein folding and to a lesser extent protein:protein interactions. But even if you had perfect knowledge of all that, you still can't just like design the perfect vaccine.

"Like if we know the virus’s DNA and it’s 3D protein architecture, we can solve for antigen proteins in a computer that outputs possible DNA sequences and we can manufacture them the next day in a protein printer. How far away are we to that future?"

We (the world) accomplished that within a couple of weeks of identifying the COVID virus.