A Benchtop SPR Instrument for High-Throughput Interrogation of Protein-Ligand Interactions

研究计划/项目范围：请求的表面等离子体共振（SPR）仪器将允许对各种生物分子相互作用进行无标记检测和动力学结合分析，包括蛋白质-蛋白质、蛋白质-碳水化合物、蛋白质-药物和蛋白质-病毒相互作用。新仪器将支持生物化学、化学、糖生物学、免疫学、病毒学和神经学领域的早期职业和成熟的研究人员及其学员。研究团队：SPR仪器将由nserc资助的六个共同申请者的团队共享，至少有七个其他团队表示需要该仪器用于他们的研究项目。所有这些研究小组都位于女王大学的两个系：生物医学和分子科学以及化学。Capicciotti实验室将使用SPR来推进对聚糖-蛋白质相互作用以及糖基化如何影响蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用的理解，而Gee和Colpitts实验室将表征免疫和病毒受体-配体识别事件。布伦南实验室将研究神经免疫相互作用中涉及的蛋白质-蛋白质结合事件，Howe和Lohans团队将应用SPR研究酶和蛋白质与小分子和大分子底物（包括塑料、药物和抗生素）的相互作用。仪器和需求：需要一种最先进的台式SPR仪器，能够使用小样本量进行高通量分析，并具有用户友好界面和自动化平台。这将允许HQP在仪器所在核心设施的管理者进行短暂培训后使用该仪器。该仪器将有助于同时有效地获取多个实验的绑定数据，为HQP提供良好的培训经验，他们可以快速获得结果，为他们的研究项目提供信息。我们迫切需要一台新的SPR，因为我们现有的仪器已经使用了20年，经常出现故障，而且不便于用户使用，因为它需要训练有素的技术人员来运行样品，这意味着HQP很少使用它。因此，我们目前没有合适的仪器来支持许多需要表征生物分子相互作用的研究项目。HQP培训：来自六个实验室的HQP和来自两个部门的学员将获得使用SPR测量生物分子相互作用的直接实践经验。SPR被认为是研究生物分子相互作用的金标准技术。该仪器将使HQP能够进行有影响力的研究，并在未来的工作中具有很强的竞争力，因为SPR用于制药、生物技术、政府和学术部门。该仪器的使用将为我们的HQP提供更全面和优秀的培训，因为自动化和用户友好的系统将减少只能由技术人员或经验丰富的用户操作的旧系统的培训障碍。

Research Programs/Scope of Projects: The requested surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instrument will allow for label-free detection and kinetic binding analysis for a variety of biomolecular interactions including protein-protein, protein-carbohydrate, protein-drug and protein-virus interactions. The new instrument will support early-career and well-established researchers, and their trainees, in the fields of biochemistry, chemistry, glycobiology, immunology, virology and neurology. Research Team: The SPR instrument will be shared by the NSERC-funded teams of the six co-applicants, with at least seven other groups expressing a need for this instrument for their research programs. All these research groups are located at Queen's University in two departments: Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, and Chemistry. The Capicciotti lab will use SPR to advance the understanding glycan-protein interactions and how glycosylation impacts protein-protein interactions, while the Gee and Colpitts labs will characterize immune and viral receptor-ligand recognition events. Protein-protein binding events involved in neuro-immune interactions will be examined by the Brennan lab, and the Howe and Lohans groups will apply SPR to study enzyme and protein interactions with small and large molecules substrates including plastics, drugs, and antibiotics. The Instrument and Need: A state-of-the-art benchtop SPR instrument that is capable of high throughput analysis using small sample volumes and has a user-friendly interface with an automated platform is requested. This will allow HQP to use the instrument after a short training session by the manager of the core facility in which it will be located. This instrument will facilitate efficient acquisition of binding data for multiple experiments simultaneously, offering an excellent training experience for HQP who can quickly obtain results to inform their research projects. There is an urgent need for a new SPR as our current instrument is 20 years old, suffers from breakdowns, and is not user-friendly as it requires a well-trained technician to run samples, meaning HQP can rarely use it. As such, we currently do not have appropriate instrumentation to support the many research programs needing to characterize biomolecular interactions. HQP Training: HQP from the six labs, and trainees across two departments, will gain direct hands-on experience using SPR to measure biomolecular interactions. SPR is considered a gold standard technique for studying the interactions of biomolecules. The instrument will allow HQP to conduct impactful research and become highly competitive for future jobs, as SPR is used in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, government and academic sectors. The use of this instrument will foster more inclusive and excellent training for our HQP, as the automated and user-friendly system will reduce training barriers of older systems that can only be operated by a technician or highly experienced user.