Center for Aptamer Research and Development

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The aim of the project is to sustainably establish the Center of Aptamer Research and Development (CARD) at the University of Bonn and to offer aptamer-selection services for the scientific community on a non-profit basis. To achieve this aim we will establish a platform that enables the automated selection of aptamers. The protocols we will develop within this project will pave the way towards aptamer-generation services covering all common types of nucleic acids used for selection purposes, i.e. DNA, nucleobase-modified DNA, RNA and modified RNA and which will allow to address most of the usual target types, e.g. proteins, peptides, small molecules and cells. An ultimate goal is to provide expertise and support in aptamer research and development to the growing community of researchers seeking to use aptamers for individual research, diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. CARD will reduce the time-to-aptamer, will be accessible to many researchers and will significantly decrease the costs and allocated resources related to aptamer development making aptamers accessible for a broad community at affordable costs compatible with publicly available research budgets. A further aim is to extend the center towards building a national and inter-institutional network on aptamer research and development, for example by connecting CARD to the laboratory for "Functional Nucleic Acids Aptamers" at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Cell Therapies and Immunology with CARD. This extension will pave the way towards a national competence and reference center covering all aspects of aptamer research and development.