The company recently developed a novel, recombinant protein-based chip for identifying protein binding "signatures" in vitro.1 Candidate pharmaceutical compounds are passed over a prefabricated chip bearing an array of fluorescently labeled recombinant proteins, which, according to ASL, represent a significant number of the types of protein binding sites that pharmaceutical agents encounter in the human proteome. The fluorescent probes employ any of a variety of thermally stable protein scaffolds to display a series of different binding sites of relatively broad specificities. These probes are not specific for just one molecule, but rather, are capable of interacting with a range of different compounds with varying affinities and specificities. When a given protein in the array binds a pharmaceutical agent of interest, it may undergo conformational changes that reposition its fluorescent reporter, resulting in an increase or decrease in fluorescent signal.
ASL designed a detection system that monitors the overall pattern of ...
