2010 DDP Awards: Technology Innovation Nominee: University of California at San Francisco

Electron tomography and image reconstruction technology to field monitor and determine the structure of highly dynamic proteins, such as antibodies, high-density lipoproteins and low-density lipoproteins Antibodies have been used as a drug delivery vehicle for years. With the drugs bonding to antibodies as the conjugated antibody, some conjugated antibodies may lose their function to bond to the target cell. To discover the reason for improving the drug delivery efficiencies, the structure of the conjugate is usually needed. However, structural determination of the dynamic antibody is not available by current technology, so we developed the electron tomography and image reconstruction technology which allow us to determine each individual antibody structure at about 10A resolution. By using this technology, we have discovered the conformational change of the antibodies after being bound to drug. Thus, this method has a general impact to field monitor and determine the structure of highly dynamic proteins, such as antibodies, high-density lipoproteins and low-density lipoproteins.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, January 26 at the Drug Delivery Partnerships International Conference.

Share this article with your social network, just click below to share now!

Share |