Biologically active molecules from the genus Conidea (a marine gastropod) have presently stimulated interest into their use as pharmaceutical lead compounds, both to combat pain and control ischemic damage to the brain after stroke. Present quantities of venom obtained from the genus require state of the art technology at the high resolution readily achievable by current mass spectrometry. The complexity of these molecules, including post-translational modifications, together with their highly constrained disulfide bridges, requires the development of nano-technological methods, to establish and confirm sequence data, to enable successful synthesis for future pharmacological investigations. The direction of this research is to provide novel biologically active molecules rapidly via mass spectrometry, and to develop this approach as a major contributing influence for novel conotoxin sequences.
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