Peptide Synthesis Core Facility

Director: G.M. Anantharamaiah, PhD

Department/Center Association: Center for Aging and Comprehensive Cancer Center

Established: 1985

Mission

The mission of the Peptide Synthesis Core Facility is to provide purified synthetic peptides in milligram to gram quantities containing natural and unnatural amino acid sequences to investigators in a short period.

Facility Description

Located in the Boshell Diabetes Building, the Core maintains the following equipment: four automatic peptide synthesizers, three analytical HPLC systems, three preparative HPLC for mg quantities and two preparative MPLC for producing gram quantities of purified peptides, a mass spectral facility, and gas chromatography. Core faculty are experienced peptide chemists with doctoral degrees in synthetic peptide chemistry. Leadership is provided by Dr. G.M. Anantharamaiah, Core Director and Professor in the Department of Medicine. Drs. Manjula Chaddha and Palgunachari Mayakonda assist in the operation of the facility.

Research Information

Scientists conducting research in the structure-function of peptides may utilize the Core. Research that seeks to raise an antibody to a particular protein can select a portion of the protein that is likely to produce the antibody. Physical chemists involved in structure determination, antiviral peptides, antibiotic peptides, peptides for conjugating to the solid support, and peptide derivatives for spectral studies may use the Core as a resource.

The Core provides services such as the synthesis of peptides and derivatization of peptides either for antibody production or for biophysical/biochemical studies. The facility is able to produce peptides from mg to gram scale of chain length < 40 residues. The Core is committed to a turn-around-time of within one month for requested peptides, noting that the ease with which a peptide can be synthesized depends upon the nature of the peptide sequence and the size of the peptide.

Services and Fees

Peptides are typically synthesized using the solid phase method of peptide synthesis. In certain cases where the peptides are smaller in size and large quantities are required, conventional solution phase chemistry is performed. Synthetic peptide derivatives can be produced for various purposes. With the various types of purification facilities available, pure peptides, free of scavengers and other impurities, can be produced. Highly aware of the need for purified peptides, the Core leadership has gone to great lengths to develop purification methods for synthetic peptides.

Consultation is provided to investigators conducting studies with peptides. Several computer programs for selecting membrane-associating peptides are available.

The fee for Peptide Synthesis (up to 20 residues), including purification, at the standard scale of 0.1 mmol is $20 per residue (10 mg of the purified peptide is guaranteed). There is an additional charge of $25 per peptide for mass spectral analysis. For sequences longer than 20 residues, the fee is $25 per residue. For quantities more than 10mg of the pure peptide, additional purification cost will be included ($200 for a preparative HPLC run for additional quantities). For syntheses on a larger scale, please inquire. For KLH conjugation, and most other available forms of derivatization, the additional fee is $100. There is a surcharge of 6% for samples from outside UAB.

Contact Information

Peptide Synthesis Contact for scientific matters: G.M. Anantharamaiah, PhD

Email: ananth@uab.edu

Phone: 205-934-1884

Peptide Synthesis Contact for general inquiries: Palgunachari N. Mayakonda, PhD

Phone: 205-934-1883 or 205-934-1887

Email: Palgun@uab.edu

Approved by: G.M. Anantharamaiah, PhD, Core Director
Date: February 22, 2008

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