We are requesting funds to purchase equipment necessary for synthesizing specific peptides as needed by members of the listed user group. The equipment includes an Applied Biosystems automated solid phase peptide synthesizer and a preparative HPLC from Sota Chromatography, Inc., for purification of peptides generated by the Applied Biosystems synthesizer. The primary user group represents a sizeable subset of the faculties of the Molecular Biology and Biology Departments at Princeton and includes all or almost all of the research groups at Princeton that we have identified as likely to require this capability in the pursuit of their current research. The primary use of the proposed facility is to generate peptides to be used as immunogens to elicit antibodies that recognize a specific protein, or domain of a protein, of biological interest. This technology will be applied in the pursuit of a number of NIH funded research projects. These include regulation of plasmid propagation in yeast, genetic analysis of protein export, mutator genes in E. coli, regulation of development in Caulobacter crescentus, outer membrane structure/function analysis in E. coli, molecular analysis of Drosophila sex determination, adenovirus gene expression, and analysis of p53, a cellular tumor antigen. The availability of this instrument will promote the expeditious completion of these projects.
