Development of Aptamer Affinity Reagents to Immune Targets in Non-human Disease Models

This goal of this program is to address the limited availability of reagentsantibodiesproteinsligandsfor the identification and discrimination of immune cells and the characterization of immune responses in nonmammalian models and mammalian models for which immunologic reagents are limitede gguinea pigferretcotton ratFor examplethe progression of disease that follows infection of guinea pigs with Mycobacterium tuberculosis displays many features of human TBWhile this model has been used for more thanyears as a research tool to understand and describe disease mechanismsimmunologic analyses are constrained by the limited availability of immunological reagents specific for the guinea pigAnother example is the ferret model where immunologic studies also have been limited by the lack of immunological reagentsIn this projectBase Pair Biotechnologies will use its patented process for highly multiplexed aptamer selection to rapidly generate at leastnew affinity reagents in Phase I to important immune markers in guinea pigs and ferretsOur expert consultant in TB animal models will aid in target selection along with our staff with extensive bioinformatics experienceThese new reagents will be characterized for their binding constantsspecificityand demonstrated in ELISA like assaysand ELISpotIn Phase IIwe will use the same process to generate at leastmore reagents and employed in additional applications relevant to cancer immunology studies and clinical trials