pSKAN Phagemid Display Libraries

Many therapeutic pharmaceuticals recognize their targets, and enzymes their substrates, through binding interactions in deep pockets in the protein surface. The pSKAN phage display libraries present a very small hypervariable region that can probe difficult to access areas on a protein, thus providing an advantage over many other types of display libraries for probing tight regions.

Features:

• hypervariable region (average one per phage, >3 x 10⁷ variants) is on a highly constrained aa loop on the tip of the phage; useful for finding compounds that demonstrate high affinity binding.
• the small (6, 7, or 8 aa) hypervariable display can be used to probe deep pockets on protein surfaces.
• relatively easy and reliable modeling because of the highly constrained epitope.
• Stability of the libraries is due to the strong repression of the lambda promoter in the E. coli host, WK6lmutS.

Applications:

• selection of peptides with desired binding affinities
• development of new affinity matrices for a protein of choice
• identify novel inhibitors
• develop tools for the detection of proteins
• detection of allergens in medical applications

Phage display is a unique tool for the selection of proteins with specific binding properties. The pSKAN Phagemid Display System consists of three different ready-to-use phagemid libraries in E. coli each representing more than 3 x 10⁷ peptide variants. During the enrichment process ("panning" procedure), the phagemid libraries are tested for specific binding to a target molecule of interest: the phage particles are bound to a ligand-coated surface (e.g. microtiter plate); the poorly binding majority are washed away; the strongly binding population is eluted and amplified by re-infection in E. coli. Several rounds of panning lead to one or very few peptide variants with the desired binding characteristics. Clones are further characterized by DNA sequencing and phage ELISA. The subsequent production of a soluble protein with the amino acid sequence of interest is possible in a second vector system (pMAMPF-3-PSTI4). The pSKAN system is fast (three weeks) and easy to handle. The pSKAN8 vector for custom made libraries is also available.

ORDER INFORMATION:
Three different pSKAN libraries in E. coli are supplied ready for ligand selection: includes host strain and detailed handbook with all essential protocols. Helper phage not included.