Summer Undergraduate Research Program - Fred Hutchinson ...

epitope. E. coli plasmids, which were encoded for specific epitope carrying scaffolds, were brought in from
an outside lab . This plasmid was transformed via heat shock into E . coli and grown in medium . The E . coli
was then induced to over express the scaffold sequence of the plasmid. The resulting scaffold was purified
and concentrated . The scaffold expressed in a soluble form was tested in guinea pigs to check for an immune
response . Out of the 52 scaffolds attempted, 25 were expressed and soluble, of which 8 were tested for
immune response. Of the 8 tested, 2 bound sufficiently to antibodies; however this binding did not occur at
the epitope region of the scaffold . Thus far, none of the scaffolds have elicited an immune response .
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