June 26, 2017
11 am to 12 pm EDT

Sponsored by
Gyros Protein Technologies logo

Preview:  

 

Webinar Description:

The Kay lab at the University of Utah is focused on D-peptide inhibitor development, which requires the chemical synthesis of mirror-image protein targets. Mirror-image proteins are not found in nature and are promising therapeutic agents due to their resistance to degradation by natural proteases. This webinar will describe the use of chemical, instrumental, and computational tools to overcome challenges associated with the chemical synthesis of large proteins via Fmoc solid-phase peptide synthesis and native chemical ligation. Specific examples will include the use of a reversible solubilizing tag (“helping hand”), pseudoproline dipeptides, UV monitoring, and an automated ligator program (“Aligator”) to predict the most efficient synthesis schemes.

Learning Objectives:

  • Chemical synthesis of large complex proteins using Fmoc SPPS and native chemical ligation
  • Different strategies for large complex peptide synthesis
    • Reversible solubilizing tag (‘helping hand”)
    • Pseudoproline dipeptides
  • Improving automated peptide synthesis efficiencies
    • UV monitoring
    • Automated ligator program (“Aligator”)

Speakers:

Michael S Kay MD/PhD

Professor

Biochemistry, University of Utah

Michael Kay is a Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Medicine and Director of the Biological Chemistry Graduate Program. Before coming to Utah in 2001, he trained with Harold Scheraga at Cornell University (BA in Biology and Chemistry), Robert Baldwin at Stanford University (MD/PhD in Biochemistry), and Peter Kim at MIT (Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow). He currently mentors one postdoctoral and five predoctoral trainees and has graduated eight PhD students. His lab designs mirror-image peptides for use as novel therapies that are not degraded in the body, with a special emphasis on viral entry inhibitors.