EU grant AffinityProteome for Biaffin

Biaffin is awarded EU funding for proteome research targeting the TGF-beta and MAP kinase signal transduction pathways

Biaffin received an EU grant, which funds proteome research targeting the TGF-beta and MAP kinase signal transduction pathways. The collaborative research project between 5 leading academic groups and 6 commercial enterprises called AffinityProteome has been established to develop tools and technologies for proteome research based on affinity reagents enabling the detection and localisation of multiple proteins through the application of binder-based technologies (affinity proteomics). This project focuses on resolving bottlenecks in the production of specific affinity reagents of different types (antibody fragments, DARPins, DNA aptamers) to be used in advanced applications (protein chips, capture microarrays, fluorescence imaging, single molecule detection, intracellular knockdown). The targets for binder production and analysis are the proteins of the TGF-beta and MAP kinase signal transduction pathways implicated in many diseases. Biaffin is particularly involved with the manufacture of quality-controlled recombinant target proteins and with the kinetic characterisation of their interactions with novel affinity reagents using real time biosensors based on surface plasmon resonance. Besides the generation of new products such as protein kinase enzymes, substrates and scaffold proteins, the project AffinityProteome enables Biaffin to exemplify and improve its capabilities in manufacturing of recombinant protein kinases and in protein detection technologies for future exploitation in proteomics and diagnostics.