Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

This application is for funds to purchase a microwave peptide synthesizer. Peptides are short chains of amino acids joined together by amide bonds (also known as peptide bonds). Peptides have many uses such as catalysts, adhesives, delivery agents, preservatives, agrochemicals, imaging agents, drugs, vaccines and as tools to study biological and physical processes. The most common approach to making peptides is known as solid phase peptide synthesis. This process has been automated and an automated peptide synthesizer is now an essential tool for any laboratory in which peptide synthesis is an important aspect of the laboratory's research program. There is only a single automated peptide synthesizer in the entire Faculty of Science at the Univ. Waterloo. This synthesizer is 20 years old and is no longer functioning due to a host of problems. The manufacturer discontinued production of this synthesizer 5 years ago and no longer services it. We are requesting funds to purchase a modern microwave peptide synthesizer. Besides the requested model having a strong track record of reliability and serviceability, this synthesizer has important features that were not available on the old synthesizer such as the option of performing peptide syntheses at either ambient temperature or at elevated temperatures (up to 90 oC) via microwave heating. Performing peptide syntheses at elevated temperatures significantly reduces the time required to make peptides and can make the synthesis of difficult or large peptides more efficiently compared to ambient temperature. Moreover, it can also reduce the amount of amino acid and reagents required for each step in the synthesis process. The requested synthesizer also uses much less solvent other peptide synthesizers. This synthesizer is essential to the applicant's research programs which covers multiple aspects of peptide science such as antibiotic development, proteomics, and for studying fundamental processes such as protein folding. The PI (Scott Taylor) will be a user and will be overseeing the management of the instrument.