Bachem PEPTalk
A Newsletter from Bachem
April 2012

In This Issue

Featured Lab: Dr. Roger Acey, CSU Long Beach

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Bachem Peptide News Fragments **NEW**

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Bachem Amino Acid Sudoku

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Order the 2012 Bachem Immunology Catalog

You can order the 2012 Bachem Immunology Catalog by mail or you can also search our online shop for immunology products including antibodies, antisera, EIA kits, and RIA kits.

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Amino Acid Sudoku Winner

Linda Haag is a Master Scheduler for Instrumentation Laboratory's reagent manufacturing facility in Orangeburg, NY. Instrumentation Laboratory builds quality diagnostic laboratory equipment for critical care analysis. Bachem's BOC amino acids are used in the formulation of many of Instrumentation Laboratory's chromogenic substrates.

As a prize, Linda received a USD $25 VISA gift card.

See this month's Amino Acid Sudoku for your chance to win this month's prize: a Bachem Swiss Army Knife.

Featured Lab:
Dr. Roger Acey, Department of Biochemistry, CSU Long Beach

Metallothionein, a Heavy Metal Binding Protein

Dr. Roger Acey's lab at California State University (CSU) Long Beach is interested in the biochemical and genetic factors controlling early embryonic development. They are using the brine shrimp Artemia salina ("the sea monkeys" found in the back of old comic books) as a model organism. In particular, they are studying how Artemia maintains intracellular trace metal homeostasis and the role of trace metals in regulating gene transcription.

To this end, Acey's group has cloned the gene encoding a metallothionein-like protein. Metallothionein has the unique ability to selectively bind both toxic and precious heavy metals, e.g., mercury, lead, gold, and platinum. It does not bind essential trace metals such as calcium and magnesium. Metal binding occurs instantaneously on contact with dissociation constants greater than 10^-12. The protein will bind metal at extremes of pH (4 to 10) and temperature (4 to 100°C).

Regulation of Intracellular Trace Metal Concentrations by Metallothionein

Dr. Acey's lab is studying metallothionein as a "metal buffer" to regulate intracellular concentrations of essential metals such as zinc. Zinc is important for the function many enzymes; for example, zinc is critical for function of the gene transcription apparatus RNA Polymerase II. As such, changing the bioavailability of zinc can also change activity of RNA Polymerase II and ultimately regulate gene expression.

Recent studies in particular support the concept that metallothionein is a "storage depot" for essential trace metals such as zinc. It has been seen that metallothionein can directly transfer metals to apo-zinc metalloproteins. Dr. Acey's lab is continuing to study how metallothionein can affect gene expression, particularly during embryonic development of Artemia.

Environmental Applications of Metallothionein

The unique metal binding properties of metallothionein led Dr. Acey to develop a technology using the protein as a "heavy metal sponge" to remove toxic or precious metals from solutions. The device can also be adapted to remove mercury based preservatives from pharmaceuticals or to clean up toxic waste sites.

About Dr. Acey

Dr. Roger Acey is professor of Biochemistry at CSU Long Beach. He is the holder of four US and three international patents on the technology described here. There are also ten US/International patents pending.

To learn more about Dr. Acey's research, visit his website at
http://chemistry.csulb.edu/roger-acey.html.

To read publicly available information on Dr. Acey's patents, visit Google Patent Search.

Contact Dr. Acey by email at roger.acey@csulb.edu.

** NEW ** Bachem Peptide News Fragments

We scour the Internet and share with you news about peptides in basic research and pharmaceutical development. These are Bachem Peptide News Fragments.

PHARMACEUTICAL NEWS

BYETTA® Approved for Use with Basal Insulin in Europe
http://www.fiercepharma.com/press-releases/byetta-approved-use-basal-insulin-europe

PEPTIDE RESEARCH NEWS

Frog skin protein may help fight superbugs—A few species of frogs are known to secrete peptides that protect against a broad range of unwanted bacteria.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/03/19/3456896.htm

Synthetic spider venom could add bite to crop protection—Researchers are looking at whether it is possible to mimic the insecticidal peptides found in spider venom compounds for use in controlling insects that threaten crops.
http://qcl.farmonline.com.au/news/state/grains-and-cropping/general/synthetic-spider-venom-could-add-bite-to-crop-protection/2494414.aspx

£140,000 for research into peptide nanotubes—Professor Dek Woolfson, Dr David Fermin, and Dr Franziska Thomas in the School of Chemistry have secured a three-year Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant totaling £140,000. The award is to develop the design, assembly and functionalisation of peptide nanotubes, leading to nanothin metal wires.
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2012/8361.html

Meet Bachem

Isabelle Sutter is an Inside Sales Representative responsible for the sales of our catalog products in France, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Spain, Italy and Israel. She speaks and writes English, French, Spanish, and German fluently.

Isabelle joined Bachem in 2005 as a trainee, and has been an Inside Sales Representative since January 2007. In her leisure time, Isabelle likes reading lots of books, practicing her language skills while traveling through Europe, snorkeling, baking cakes, and cooking in general.

 

Ask a Regulatory Affairs Question

Bachem manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for use throughout the world in investigational and commercial drug products. Bachem has the knowledge and experience necessary to meet the regulatory filing requirements of our customers from drug development through commercialization.

Bachem has 65 national EDMF approvals, 35 active US DMFs, 15 CEPs, and several active DMFs in many other countries. We have submitted many technical packages in support of successful IMPDs and INDs.

To ask Bachem a regulatory question, email us at news@bachem.com or click on the picture. Your question may be answered in a future issue of Bachem PEPTalk.

Learn more about regulatory affairs at Bachem.

Bachem Amino Acid Sudoku

 

This Month's Peptide: AQEE-30 (human)

AQEE-30 is one of the fragments of the neurosecretory protein VGF. VGF is thought to be involved in the regulation of cell-cell interactions or in synaptogenesis during the maturation of the nervous system.

The VGF gene was originally identified in nerve growth factor-treated PC12 cells. It is expressed in a subset of neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems and in specific populations of endocrine cells in the adenohypophysis, adrenal medulla, gastrointestinal tract, and pancreas. Proteolytic processing yields a number of peptides with activities in anti-depression, stress response, food intake, and energy homeostasis. For example, the mouse/rat AQEE-30 Pro-VGF-derived peptide (H-7276) has been shown to increase synaptic charge in hippocampal neurons and to evoke thermal hyperalgesia when injected intrathecally into naive adult mice.

Note: a second Leu has been replaced with Xxx.

Bachem offers various catalog peptides and immunology products for studying the neurosecretory protein VGF.

Reference: UNIPROT

The Rules

Each amino acid in the sequence listed above appears once in each of the nine rows, once in each of the nine columns, and once in each of the 3x3 boxes outlined with a double border.

Email your answers to puzzle@bachem.com. Please submit correct entries before 12:01am Pacific Time, Monday, April 23, 2012.

One randomly-selected winner will receive a Bachem Swiss Army Knife.