AGGRESCAN and its evolution : A two-decade perspective on protein aggregation prediction
Pesce, Giulia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Bioquímica i de Biologia Molecular)
Solé Pozas, Josep Oriol (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Biotecnologia i de Biomedicina "Vicent Villar Palasí")
Bárcenas, Oriol (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Bioquímica i de Biologia Molecular)
Ventura, Salvador (Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari. Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT))

Date:	2026
Abstract:	Protein aggregation is a widespread phenomenon with profound biological, biomedical, and biotechnological implications. In human disease, aberrant protein self-assembly is a hallmark of numerous neurodegenerative disorders, whereas in the biopharmaceutical industry, aggregation complicates the production, stability, and formulation of therapeutic proteins. The Aggrescan platform was one of the first empirically based tools designed to predict aggregation-prone regions (APRs) within protein sequences. It has since expanded to incorporate three-dimensional structural contexts and environmental conditions. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the development, application, and impact of the Aggrescan family of tools, which includes AGGRESCAN, Aggrescan3D, and the recent Aggrescan4D. We examine the algorithmic foundations, empirical validation, and key use cases spanning fields from biotechnology to biomedical research. Additionally, we describe how the recent integration of AlphaFold models has enabled proteome-scale exploration of aggregation determinants. This review highlights how Aggrescan has evolved alongside with advances in the field, becoming a reliable and accessible tool for studying and redesigning protein aggregation.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2022-137963OB-I00 Generalitat de Catalunya 2021/SGR-00635 Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades FPU22/03656
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article de revisió ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Protein aggregation ; Aggregation-prone regions ; Computational protein design ; Amyloid ; Molecular dynamics ; Protein therapeutics
Published in:	Biophysical Reviews, January 2026, ISSN 1867-2469

DOI: 10.1007/s12551-025-01404-9

12 p, 3.4 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Institut de Biotecnologia i de Biomedicina (IBB)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles