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Deep learning based design of buried hydrogen bond networks with HBDesigner

Dieckhaus, H.; Harvey, B. T.; Mulikova, T.; Horenstein, J. T.; Nicely, N. I.; Randolph, N. Z.; Kuhlman, B.

2026-06-11 bioengineering
10.64898/2026.06.08.730848 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Accurate design of hydrogen-bonding (H-bonding) interactions is a longstanding goal in protein design, as they can facilitate specific protein-protein interactions while improving the solubility of the proteins in the unbound state. Despite this, computational design of H-bond networks remains underexplored in the deep learning era. Here, we present HBDesigner, a novel algorithm for H-bond network design. Through a combination of deep learning-based sampling and atomistic energy scoring, HBDesigner outperforms existing tools in designing connected H-bond networks onto protein scaffolds. We demonstrate the usefulness of HBDesigner by creating monomeric proteins with buried polar interactions and homodimers with extended interface H-bond networks, and by installing specificity into a family of homologous heterodimers where prior design tools fail to do so. The ability to design H-bond networks into arbitrary protein scaffolds should be broadly useful for a wide range of design applications.

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