Inventors:
Christopher Noren - Boxford MA, US
Karen Sandman - Arlington MA, US
Beth Paschal - Salem MA, US
International Classification:
C12Q001/68
C12P019/34
C12N015/85
US Classification:
435006000, 435091200, 435455000
Abstract:
The naturally-occurring amino acid selenocysteine (Sec) is incorporated uniquely and specifically in the context of a polypeptide displayed on the surface of an amplifiable genetic particle (phage, cell or spore) in response to incorporation signals engineered in the encoding DNA. In addition to conferring the unique activities of the selenol group to the chemistry of the displayed peptide, Sec also provides a unique handle for specific chemical modification of the displayed peptide. In addition to increasing the palette of available residues in a random peptide library to 21 possibilities, the present invention also provides a means of tethering virtually any desired chemical functionality to the incorporated Sec.
