Temperature-sensitive proteases for research and diagnostics

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The objective of this proposal is to develop a family of temperature-sensitive proteases that can be used in molecular biology research and in automated diagnostic systems to detect human diseases. A protease is an enzyme that attacks and degrades other proteins. Often in the research or diagnostic laboratory a series of steps are used, and each step uses a different enzyme, which is a protein. In these situations a major challenge is to remove the enzyme from one step before moving on to the next step. A temperature-sensitive protease addresses this problem by providing a way of removing an enzyme through degradation, and then removing the protease activity through mild heating. Currently, there are no temperature-sensitive proteases commercially available, thus our discovery will fill a currently unmet need.