CONCO

Work Package Leader: Oliver HARTLEY (University of Geneva)

Participants: Atheris Laboratories, University of Patras, University of Geneva, University of Tel-Aviv, Jozef Stefan Institute, University of Utrecht

The Synthetic Library, 3D Structure and Protein Arrays

Whether identified by genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, biocomputing or biochemical means, most of the newly identified compounds will only be available in minute quantities, if at all. To produce larger quantities of the venom constituents, a high-throughput synthesis program will thus be set up to generate by chemical and recombinant means a "synthetic library" that will complement the "natural library". The Quality Control of its components will be made by mass spectrometry.

A priority list of synthetic biomolecules with the highest innovative potential will be generated with the assistance of bioinformatics tools. The selected compounds will undergo deeper structural investigation using circular dichroism, NMR and computer-assisted molecular modelling.

Finally the interactions of venom components with biopolymers of importance will be studied using innovative reversible protein arrays based on a proprietary technology known as covalent capture. This workpackage will be supervised by Prof Keith Rose who invented this technology and who is a worldwide renowned expert in peptide synthesis.