Award details

Bacteriophage display antibodies recognising PrP

Reference	BS308134
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr John Young
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	Div of Immunology Compton
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	159,126
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/09/1997
End date	25/02/2001
Duration	42 months

Abstract

Conformational changes in PrP molecules are associated with, and may be responsible for the infectivity of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The aim of this project is to obtain monoclonal antibody reagents recognising a variety of epitopes on the murine PrP molecule, for application in studies of PrP structure, intracellular processing and pathology. In particular, we wish to produce reagents distinguishing normal and disease-associated conformations, the products of different alleles, and PrPsc deposited during infection with different strains of infectious agent. Antibodies will be produced by selection of bacteriophage-display antibodies from large- repertoire synthetic CDR3 libraries which are unconstrained by self-tolerance and problems of antigen presentation that have made these objectives difficult to achieve in the past. Selection will be by specific binding to available purified recombinant PrP, to arrays of immobilised peptides, and to PrPsc from infected mouse brains. Recently described `subtractive' procedures will direct selections towards epitopes capable of the desired discrimination. Antibodies produced will be tested for utility in western blot, immunohistology and other assays to assess their utility, and will be immediately available to structural and cell biological projects within the institute and elsewhere.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Biology of Spongiform Encephalopathies - Phase 3 (BS3) [1996-1997]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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