Bioengineering the Future with Dr. Ranganathan

Dr. Rama Ranganathan visited campus as this year’s Robert A. Pritzker Visiting Scientist•Inventor•Engineer in Residence to reveal more about the fascinating natural machines inside of us all.

As the Joseph Regenstein Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, he had much to convey on the topic in his public lecture at the school, a Morning Ex with students and teachers and a series of gatherings with Upper School science classes.

Dr. Ranganathan guided listeners to view the cells in our bodies as tiny machines responsible for all the functions of life. He explained that the term “machine” was appropriate to apply to biological systems since they do their job through efficient cycles of motions that are finely tuned for their functions—just like man-made machines. But, unlike man-made machines, proteins are evolved materials that have been built over time through processes that humans do not yet understand, and they feature internal designs unlike anything humans could ever expect. Herein lies the potential for the future of medical therapies, sustainable energy, more resilient crops and beyond.

At the public lecture, guests learned more about the current understanding of the evolutionary design of proteins, including recent insights from AI models that can build artificial proteins that work just as well as their natural counterparts—offering potential benefits for human and planetary health. In his Morning Ex, Dr. Ranganathan detailed discoveries that have happened in science throughout history and foreshadowed a not-so-distant future when understanding and designing biological machines might be the next big breakthrough.

In his talk with US biology classes, he illustrated the successful identification of the function of particular protein mechanisms using the example of the jump-flight response daytime flying insects use to evade predators. He said the compound eyes of the fruit fly have a particular protein mechanism, and when a mutation is introduced to change the way one critical protein functions, it can result in turning off the fly’s jump-flight response. This example demonstrated our ability to manipulate biology on the molecular level to produce changes on the macro scale.

Parker looks forward to Dr. Ranganathan’s return during the second semester to continue the conversations and learning from in this initial visit.

Photos of Dr. Ranganathan at Parker are available here, and more on him and his work is available here.

You can watch the Morning Ex below.