(Taken directly from the application) The Peptide Core Facility was initiated on 3/1/92, and over the past six-year period, the Facility has expanded and improved its services which now include: solid-phase fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (FMOC) peptide synthesis, HPLC purification, amino acid analysis, peptide/protein isolation, derivatization using reporter groups, and peptide conjugation for antibody preparation. These services are provided at cost to UMMS investigators, although the primary users are DERC members who receive a 65% discount from the grant subsidy. Use of the facility by DERC members has been consistent and sustained, involving about 40% of the 44-60 independent investigators in 1993 to 1998. There has been broad representation, with any one investigator receiving less than 12% of any of the six services. Over the past six-year period, DERC members received 1,430 peptide syntheses, 870 HPLC purifications, 784 amino acid analyses, 353 peptide conjugations, and 178 antibody productions. Performance evaluations in-house have been highly favorable, and Faculty Council has been supportive in regards to equipment needs. The results of a questionnaire predict equally strong usage of the facility by DERC members in the coming year. Goals for the future are to enhance our abilities to synthesize specialty peptides, including phospho/phosphono peptides, larger sized peptides, peptide libraries, and enzymatically resistant peptides. We also plan to improve quality control by utilizing mass spectrometer analysis. Current outside collaborative projects include the synthesis of ligands for gadolinium based nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of neuroendocrine peptide receptors and the synthesis of bichromophoric peptides of rigid structure in order to study mechanisms of photo-energy transfer.
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