Figure 1.

Design strategies for IDRs. Design and testing of IDRs are iterative processes. Initial candidate peptides are based on naturally occurring HDPs, designed using computational tools or randomly generated. These candidate peptides are tested in vitro and in vivo and computational analysis is used to select characteristics associated with function. New candidate peptides can then be designed using this structure–function relationship information and further testing reveals further information. Data from in vitro and in vivo testing also inform studies of the mechanism of action of IDRs and this information can feed back in to the bioinformatic and computational design approach. The structural diagram is LL-37 taken from the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB) Protein Data Bank.