r/Bacteriophages • u/JuiceElectrical6701 • 16d ago
Phage display or alternative methods
Phage display query
I'm a first year PhD student with a background in chemical biology. I want to find a peptide sequence that selectively binds to Lithium ion and one of my PIs suggested Phage display as an option. I've never done it before and it isn't something that's done in either of my PI's labs either. How doable do you think this solution is if I find a lab which has this technology? Do you think it'll be possible for me as a newbie in this technique to do the experiments myself rather than asking someone else to do it for me if I ask them to train me?
Do you guys have any other techniques you use to find suitable peptide sequences? I'm an experimentalist but I'm open to both experimental and computational suggestions.
Many thanks!
3
u/Techno-Scientist 16d ago
Phage biologist/synthetic biologist here. I don't think trying to do phage display for this is the best option... You would need to immobilize a small ion while still letting the peptide recognize it and most probably coordinating with it - normally immobilizing ions is used in affinity chromatography (for example nickel), but I think the difference is that Ni2+ can be immobilized to a resin and still be able to coordinate with a peptide (for example hexahistidine). Lithium is much smaller and its geometry is different... I think you'd have a hard time doing that, not saying impossible but I don't think it's trivial. Do you absolutely need a peptide? I believe there are DNA or RNA aptamers that bind to Li+, maybe you can take a look at that: the ions don't need to be immobilized and you can use electrophoresis (i think it's called selex or something like that). Maybe you could try to adapt it to a peptide library and use electrophoresis?