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Call for Research - Protein Expression

Drug and Diagnostic Development Institute seeks applications.

September 22, 2006

The Texas Institute for Drug and Diagnostics Development (TI-3D), a university-wide initiative created to assist University of Texas at Austin scientists in the translation of basic science and technologies into health-related applications, plans to establish a protein expression and purification facility that will be available to scientists at UT Austin working in the general area of drug or diagnostics development.
When fully functioning, the protein expression/purification facility will accommodate protein expression in E. coli, Pichia, insect cells, and in mammalian cell lines. There will be fermentation capabilities in the 2-10 L scale, small to medium scale (less than 1g protein) purification, and downstream processing equipment.
Examples of appropriate projects might include the production of purified proteins at the relatively high levels needed for animal studies, high throughput screens, tissue engineering, therapeutic protein engineering, crystallography, diagnostics, or other drug/diagnostic applications. Projects devoted to novel protein scale-up production techniques will also be considered. It is assumed that the supported projects will seed drug or diagnostics development projects that will transition to NIH support.
To help jump-start the use of the protein expression/purification facility, TI-3D will provide funds for up to four projects in the amount of up to $100,000 each. The funds are to be used to support a post-doctoral level researcher using the protein expression/purification facility as an integral part of the research. Because a major focus of the TI-3D is to facilitate research collaboration between UT Austin and medical schools within Texas, a key criterion for the post-doctoral support will be the extent of interactions with one or more researchers at medical institutions.
Interested faculty from any department should contact Brent Iverson (512-471-5053, biverson@mail.utexas.edu) for details of the application process or for more information about TI-3D. Applications must be received before Oct. 15, 2006.

The University of Texas at Austin; Office of the Vice President for Research; Research Alert.