Purification of norovirus-like particles (VLPs) by ion exchange chromatography.

Recombinant expression of the norovirus capsid protein VP1 leads to self-assembly of non-infectious virus-like particles (VLPs), which are recognized as promising vaccine candidates against norovirus infections. To overcome the scalability issues connected to the ultracentrifugation-based purification strategies used in previous studies, an anion exchange-based purification method for norovirus VLPs was developed in this study. The method consists of precipitation by polyethylene glycol (PEG) and a single anion exchange chromatography step for purifying baculovirus-expressed GII.

Structural and functional characteristics of xenavidin, the first frog avidin from Xenopus tropicalis.

Background: Avidins are proteins with extraordinarily high ligand-binding affinity, a property which is used in a wide array of life science applications. Even though useful for biotechnology and nanotechnology, the biological function of avidins is not fully understood. Here we structurally and functionally characterise a novel avidin named xenavidin, which is to our knowledge the first reported avidin from a frog.

Identification of candidate disease genes by integrating Gene Ontologies and protein-interaction networks: case study of primary immunodeficiencies.

Disease gene identification is still a challenge despite modern high-throughput methods. Many diseases are very rare or lethal and thus cannot be investigated with traditional methods. Several in silico methods have been developed but they have some limitations.

Bradavidin II from Bradyrhizobium japonicum: a new avidin-like biotin-binding protein.

A gene encoding an avidin-like protein was discovered in the genome of B. japonicum. The gene was cloned to an expression vector and a protein, named bradavidin II, was produced in E.