Tsinghua FRCBS Peptide Design Competition: 300 Researchers Use AI to Target NK2R Receptor for Obesity, Diabetes, and Metabolic Disease
Beijing Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure (FRCBS) at Tsinghua University organized an international Peptide Design Competition this year with about 300 participants from around the world designing peptide candidates targeting NK2R — a G-protein-coupled receptor involved in energy metabolism and appetite regulation. The competition is structured as a benchmarking exercise to test how well AI-driven structural predictions hold up under experimental scrutiny, with participants submitting designs that are then synthesized and tested for binding and functional activity. NK2R is a target of growing interest in the obesity-pharmacology field as the GLP-1 receptor space saturates and pharmaceutical R&D groups look for the next-generation metabolic-disease receptor that could complement GLP-1/GIP/glucagon agonism. The framework — AI design followed by wet-lab validation — is positioned as a community blueprint for de novo peptide discovery at large.