Principal Investigator (PI): Dr Cristina Al-Khalili Szigyarto

Personnel: Lotta Agaton (post-doc), Lisa Berglund (PhD-student), Mats Lindskog (PhD-student), Johan Rockberg (PhD-student), Dr. Åsa Sivertzon (post-doc) and Dr. Joakim Westberg (post-doc)

Responsibility: To maintain contact with external collaborators and initiate analyses of human genes for selection of Protein Epitope Signature Tags (PrESTs) suitable for recombinant protein expression. For each PrEST an oligonucleotide primer pair suitable for subsequent cloning procedures is designed and ordered.

Description: The PrEST design module handles numerous genes that are selected to be used for generation of specific polyclonal antibodies. The genes are grouped in projects that are conducted only by the HPR or in collaboration with external researchers. The module also provides contact with external collaborators throughout the world.

The main aim of the module is to perform genome sequence analysis and select for each protein garments to be used by the HPR program. Selected PrESTs have to be suitable for generation of recombinant proteins and subsequently specific polyclonal antibodies. In-house developed software is used for selection of appropriate protein fragments. Information requested by the HPR laboratory concerning the PrEST and its corresponding gene is collected and stored in the HPR database. The module also performs design of PrEST specific synthetic oligonucleotide primers. The primers allow cloning of the corresponding gene fragments by RT-PCR.

Each PrEST is followed through the HPR pipeline and results from different modules are continuously analyzed. The protein fragment selection strategy is further developed by these analyses in order to improve downstream success rates.