AUTOMATIC PARALLEL PEPTIDE SYNTHESIZER FOR AIDS VACCINE

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DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from the applicant's abstract) The objective is to develop a multiple-parallel peptide synthesizer which can efficiently produce a series of different peptides, each in sufficient quantities for experimental immunization of animals against viruses including HIV-1, in either the same or less time than currently required to produce one peptide. The parallel configuration employed involves a series of reaction chambers in a rotor arranged to be fed reagents by centrifugal force, either from a transfer disc similar to that used in the centrifugal fast analyzer, or from a reagent stream which is segmented by blades incorporated in the rotor. This allows peptide specific amino acid derivatives to be added to each reaction train, while the wash solutions, deblocking, and capping reagents common to each synthetic step are added during rotation. By careful control of reagent density differences, and by vectoring of the force field by control of rotor speed, solutions are quantitatively changed using minimal volumes of reagents. Angles of lines and surfaces in the reaction train are designed to control fluid flow and to allow displacement of one fluid by another. The peptides are cleaved and collected in a co-rotating collection ring, and lyophilized during rotation. Numerous applications of this system are described.