4. Directed Evolution

Directed evolution is a method that mimics natural selection to guide proteins or nucleic acids toward a particular goal. Either in vivo or in vitro, directed evolution subjects genes to multiple rounds of mutagenesis, selection, and amplification.

Directed evolution presents superior results to rational design. DNA shuffling, mimicking natural evolution, has been proved to be a fast and effective method for obtaining desired characteristics. This approach doesn’t require prior structural knowledge of a protein and doesn’t need to predict the impact of mutations.