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Peptide & Tetramer Core Facility
| Mission
| Offer
| Clients
| Instruments
| Certification
Mission
The Peptide & Tetramer Core Facility (PTCF) is a platform within the Lausanne branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), part of the Department of oncology UNIL CHUV. Its mission is to provide the department as well as researchers worldwide with state-of-the-art, high quality peptides and peptide-MHC (pMHC) based reagents.
PTCF scientists have outstanding expertise in immunology and peptide & protein chemistry with over 30 years of interdisciplinary experience. PTCF high quality reagents acquired a solid worldwide reputation and are referenced in over 200 peer-reviewed publications.
Offer
The PTCF offers state of the art peptides and peptide-based services for projects in immunology, vaccines and peptide chemistry.
Peptides are available in different scales (mg to g) and different purity grades (crudes to >95%), suitable for research purposes as well as preclinical studies (Chevalier, Bobisse et al. 2015). In 2023, PTCF obtained a SwissMedic authorization for manufacturing and commercialization of synthetic GMP peptides that can be used as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients.
Our pMHC reagents allow isolation and in depth analysis of antigen-specific CD8 and CD4 T cells (Guillaume et al. 2011, Schmidt, Dojcinovic et al. 2013, Schmidt et al. 2023). A unique technology enables accurate measurement of monomeric pMHC-TCR dissociation rates on live cells by flow cytometry. Analysis of TCR structural avidity, a robust marker of T cell potency, improve the selection of candidate TCR for personalized adoptive T cell therapy.
Clients
Customers of PTCF include scientists in academic research laboratories, large non-profit clinical trials, and pharmaceutical companies. In addition to our local market, PTCF also services customers in the USA, Europe and Japan.
Instruments
Peptide synthesis |
PTCF has 5 automatized synthesizers. Two CSbio (136M and 336) for production up to 1g and 6 peptides in simultaneously and 2 CEM instruments (MultiPep RSi) producing up to 120 peptides in a row (10-20 mg scale). All these synthesizers are qualified and GMP compliant. PTCF also has 1 high-throughput CEM (MultiPep) synthesizer that can produce up to 384 crude peptides (1 mg) used for research epitope mapping and screening. |
Peptide purification |
Peptides are purified using 2 high-throughput HPLC-PREP coupled to single quadrupole mass spectrometers from Agilent Technologies. MS detection allow direct isolation of target peptides, enabling purification of 200 peptides a week. Peptides are then lyophilized using 2 lyophilizers from Vitaris. |
Peptide QC |
Peptides QC are performed using 2 UPLC 6230 coupled to accurate TOF mass spectrometer from Agilent Technologies. Identity of peptides is determined by MS with accuracy of 0.02 da and purity is determined by UV detection at 215 nm. |
pMHC purification |
pMHC multimers are purified by size exclusion, ion exchange or affinity chromatography using FPLC AKTA systems. |
Certification
PTCF has a SwissMedic authorization for manufacturing and commercialization of GMP peptides used as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients.
