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URMC / Research / Biomedical Interaction Core

Biomolecular Interaction Core

Director

Mark Sullivan, Ph.D.

Mission Statement

The Biomolecular Interaction core facility seeks to give access to custom affinity reagents to researchers in the University. We utilize phage display to generate recombinant antibodies to user provided target molecules and produce the single-chain Fv proteins for the user. We also can perform affinity measurements using surface plasmon resonance or provide access to trained users to this equipment.

Core Services

Our primary service is to provide access to our large, human single-chain Fv antibody library and to perform custom enrichments on user-provided target antigens. We typically generate 3- 10 distinct scFvs against protein targets that can be expressed in E. coli for a variety of applications. We have the capability of also expressing selected scFvs as scFv-Fc in mammalian cells. In addition to phage antibody technology, we can also perform enrichments using peptide libraries.

A secondary service is to determine the affinity of protein-protein interactions using surface plasmon resonance analysis. We have a Reichert SR7000DC refractometer that is utilized either by core staff, or by special arrangement can be used by trained users for a daily rental fee.

Specialized Equipment

  • Reichert SR7000 Dual Channel surface plasmon resonance refractometer
  • Bio-Rad DuoFlow chromatography system
  • BioRobotics automated colony picker
  • PanVera fluorescence polarization spectrophotometer

Faculty User Group

Not formally established. Major users of the core have been Alan Smrcka, Ben Miller, Fred Hagen, and Michael Pichichero. Two industrial contracts are on-going.