Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - 1:30 PM
S113

Use of a novel yeast display system for selection of high affinity antagonists based on a transferrin scaffold

Andrew Turner, BioRexis, Pfizer Global Research and Development, 3400 Horizon Dr., King of Prussia, PA 19406

  • A number of small proteins are being used as scaffolds for the display
    and selection of novel peptides for use as potential biotherapeutics.
    Transferrin is an ideal protein for engineering novel non-antibody
    scaffold protein binders (Trans-bodies(tm)). Transferrin has free N- and
    C- termini and several flexible surface regions that allow fusion and/or
    insertion of biologically active peptides. Several such proteins based
    on natural peptides have shown high level production in yeast and long
    half-life in vivo. We have developed a novel yeast cell surface display
    system in which peptides are presented within the surface regions of the
    transferrin molecule allowing selection of transferrin derivatives with
    affinity for broad range of drug target sites in the context of the
    final therapeutic product.