A research team led by Prof. Zhang Wenbin from Peking University’s College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering has achieved the direct intracellular synthesis of protein olympiadanes—complex mechanically interlocked structures composed of five protein rings. By combining heterodimeric entangling motifs with split inteins, the team developed a multigene co-expression system that enables polypeptide chains to undergo programmed assembly and cyclization directly inside cells. Using this strategy, the researchers successfully constructed both symmetric and asymmetric protein catenanes with the intended Olympic-ring topology. The work establishes a modular and genetically encoded platform for constructing complex protein topologies, expanding the design space of protein architectures and opening new opportunities at the intersection of chemical topology and synthetic biology. The study was published in Chem. 🔗 Read more: #PKUResearch#