Fiscal Year:
2002
Title:
INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR IN VITRO EVOLUTION OF PROTEINS
Agency:
HHS
Contract:
1R43CA096203-01
Award Amount:
$107,000.00
Abstract:
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of this proposal is
to develop a powerful in vitro protein engineering platform that will allow
selection or screening of very large numbers of protein variants that is at
least 100 -1000 times more cost effective than current 96 well plate based
approaches. This strategy is based on generating cell wall bounded
micro-compartments, which contain the genetic material, the variant protein and
most importantly the product of the enzymatic reaction to allow
genotype-phenotype linkage. Using MMLV-reverse transcriptase as a model system,
we will develop a novel "permeabilized cell" technology, which is easily
adaptable to engineering a broad range of enzymes and proteins and will benefit
cancer diagnosis using microarray technology. This technology is a semi in
vitro evolution method. The target protein is produced by living cells, which
are then permeabilized to allow low molecular weight compounds, such as
nucleotides, to diffuse into the cell. The selection step is more like in vitro
(within the caged complex formed by the skeleton of fixed cell wall). This
technology keeps mutant proteins associated with the DNA encoding them allowing
very large numbers of variant proteins to be selected or screened at low cost.
PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Ambion intends to develop an in house protein engineering platform with a novel in vitro evolution methodology. This new technology would provide a powerful tool to evolve proteins with novel functions, such as mutant MMLV-RT and T7 RNA polymerase to incorporate modified nucleotide, which will benefit cancer diagnosis using microarray.
Small Business Information at Submission:
AMBION, INC.
AMBION, INC. 2130 WOODWARD ST, #200 AUSTIN, TX 78746
EIN/Tax ID:
742515119
DUNS:
N/A
Number of Employees:
N/A
Woman-Owned:
No
Minority-Owned:
No
HUBZone-Owned:
No