P20 PROTAGEN

Email:Stefan Müllner

biotechnology companies in its field. The company, established in 1997, consistently translates the latest technologies in proteomics, protein biochips, and bioinformatics into services and products for the life science industries and academia. The current market position has been achieved by a corporate policy which is driven by a stringent quality concept and outstanding expertise of the Protagen team. Founded in 1997 from the Ruhr-University in Bochum and the Max-Planck-Society in Munich, Protagen AG has developed into the premium provider for proteomics. Based on high quality protein analysis for R&D, GMP analysis of therapeutic proteins as well as software development for proteomics, a profitable business was build up. In 2004 a first financing round was closed in order to establish a new business field in protein biochips. Based on a strong patent position Protagen AG strives to become the leading provider of protein

science including: 1. 2-dimensional electrophoresis of lipid binding proteins A highly reproducible method for the differential display of membrane and plasma membrane proteins, i.e. lipid associated proteins, based on the Large Gel 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis method (2DE) developed by Joachim Klose a method for highly reproducible differential display of membrane proteins was developed. 2. Identification of high affinity protein binders and binding proteins In order to identify high affinity protein ligands and other high-affinity binding molecules, e.g. lipids, aptamers, small molecules and nucleic acids Protagen employs a high content protein macroarray. The macroarrays contain His-tagged > 37.000 DNA sequenced human protein expression products produced in E.coli. 3. Protein Microarrays and Fast Selection of the best Antibody The set of binders used in the project for pull downs and other methods will be tested for specificity on protein Microarrays - UNIchip® - in order to significantly reduce the false positive rate. This technology allows the quantitative analysis of the off-target binding partners and sensitivity/affinity testing.Specialised Microarrays for quantitative and statistical significant studies of protein lipid interaction will be produced employing the high-throughput capabilities at Protagen. 4. Posttranslational Modifications of Target Proteins Modiro® - a new software tool developed by Protagen allows the precise identification of all known and even hitherto unknown posttranslational protein modifications (PTM) in proteins and peptides. MS/MS spectra generated by machines from all manufactures can be analysed. 5. Automated Protein Identification Platform The latest generation of mass spectrometers by Bruker Daltonics were acquired in December 2006 – Ultraflex III, HCT Ultra and MicroTOF-Q - by Protagen. In addition, a highthroughput and robotised workflow for proteome analysis is established and functional at