Advanced affinity tools and technologies for high throughput studies of the human proteome

High specificity affinity reagents (binders) are essential probes for proteome research, enabling the detection and localisation of multiple proteins in tissues and fluids in health and disease, through the application of binder-based technologies (affinity proteomics). This proposal links the high throughput production of quality-controlled, recombinant binding molecules of different types (antibody fragments, engineered scaffolds, aptamers) with advanced applications (capture microarrays, multidimensional fluorescence imaging, single molecule detection, intracellular knockdown) in the analysis of human proteome targets.

The partners are five established SMEs and five leading academic groups, each with a reputation for innovation, engaged in binder production and characterisation or protein detection technologies. The project will aim to resolve bottlenecks in high throughput binder production and application technologies, including cost, throughput, automation and quality. The linkage of production, quality control and applications will be exemplified by targeting kinases and other proteins involved in the TGF-beta and MAP kinase signal transduction pathways, implicated in many diseases and where the availability of high quality binding reagents is particularly needed and drug development is actively evolving. As well as potential products, it will provide the SMEs with opportunities to exemplify and improve their technologies for future exploitation in proteomics, diagnostics and therapeutics.