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| Automated construction and screening of protein expression |
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| Automated imaging of protein crystallization experiments |
Ray Owens
Professor of Molecular Biology
Protein Production UK (PPUK) is being developed as a programme for protein engineering and production as part of the Structural Biology theme of the Rosalind Franklin Institute (RFI). PPUK aims to develop new and innovative methods and to work in partnership with academic groups and industry to enable uptake of the technology.
PPUK has an established pipeline for protein production based on the technology developed by the Oxford Protein Production Facility (OPPF), involving construction of multi-purpose vectors (e.g. for producing complexes, and membrane proteins), high-throughput expression screening in different cell hosts (microbial, insect and mammalian cells) combined with scale-up to multi-litre culture volumes and downstream processing. New technology platforms that are under development include production of single-domain antibodies (nanobodies) for the stabilisation of membrane proteins and macro-molecular complexes for analysis by cryo-EM.
We are using nanobody technology to identify binding agents with diagnostic and therapeutic potential for the treatment of respiratory viral diseases.
Recent publications
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Identification of Inhibitors of the Schistosoma mansoni VKR2 Kinase Domain
Journal article
Mathavan I. et al, (2022), ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters
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Correlation between the binding affinity and the conformational entropy of nanobody SARS-CoV-2 spike protein complexes.
Journal article
Mikolajek H. et al, (2022), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119
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Pathogen-sugar interactions revealed by universal saturation transfer analysis.
Journal article
Buchanan CJ. et al, (2022), Science (New York, N.Y.)
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A COVID-19 vaccine candidate using SpyCatcher multimerization of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor-binding domain induces potent neutralising antibody responses
Journal article
Tan TK. et al, (2021), Nature Communications, 12
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Structural Biology of Nanobodies against the Spike Protein of SARS-CoV-2
Journal article
Tang Q. et al, (2021), Viruses, 13, 2214 - 2214