The main focus of this program is to develop chemical methodologies to define the major components of vaccines for malaria or Leishmania pathogens and other biological products, with special emphasis to the synthetic constructs made in the form of the MAP (multi-antigen peptide) and lipopeptides. In order to accomplish the objectives, the laboratory maintains state-of-the-art technology in separation, compositional and structural analyses of protein, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids. Facilities and know-how of protein analyses and peptide syntheses are also maintained. Current on-going projects includes: 1. Establishment of chemical methodology for the characterization of the MAP (multi-antigenic peptide) and the establishment of synthesis methods to obtain chemically defined and pure MAP peptides. 2. Establishment of new techniques for covalently linking synthetic peptides to lipopolysaccharide carriers including new covalently bound adjuvants. 3. Provides strong support for quality control of peptide or polypeptide products intended for vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. 4. Synthezies chemically defined peptides mimicking parasitic proteins for the study of molecular pathogenesis. Publications: Oravecz, T., Pall, M., Roderiquez, G., Gorrell, M., Ditto, M., Nguyen, N., Boykins, B., Unsworth, E., and Norcross, M. (1998) J. Exp. Med. 186, 1865-1872. Boykins, B., Oravecz, T., Unsworth, E., Syin, C. (1998) Cytokine, In press.
