Research infrastructure PEP is the Umeå node of the national infrastructure Protein Production Sweden (PPS).
Protein Expertise Platform (PEP) is the local node of Protein Production Sweden (PPS), a national research infrastructure established in 2022. PPS focuses on the production and purification of (mainly) recombinant protein reagents for all Swedish researchers. The seven participating PPS labs use several different expression systems which allows the production of many types of proteins. Researchers can access the PPS infrastructure via a common entry-point and obtain individualized support based on their research needs throughout the whole process of protein production and purification. This can include all steps from project counselling and initial design to final quality control, or any single/multiple step(s) of the process.
To get more information about PPS’ services and the participating nodes, or apply for project support, please visit: https://pps.gu.se/en
The Protein Expertise Platform (PEP) is a strong environment at the Chemical Biological Center (KBC), at Umeå University. The PEP provides researchers with needed services and expert advice in questions of bioinformatics, cloning, growth optimization and protein purification. The PEP keeps stocks of over 20 different ready to use cloning vectors (containing a variety of fusion proteins and purification tags) designed to improve protein expression levels and to facilitate protein purification. In addition, the PEP provides about 10 different strains of competent E. coli bacteria ready for transformation, as well as various antibiotics and different proteases that are commonly used in protein purification.
The PEP provides researchers with the necessary materials for cloning and protein expression, having in stock a variety of cloning plasmids, antibiotics and competent bacteria cells. Further, commonly used proteases for tag removal by site-specific cleavage can be obtained. We can also provide you with material for isotopic labelling.
We can help you with your cloning issues e.g. PCR, ligation, subcloning, and mutagenesis.
We can set up a small scale screening in order to see if your protein of interest is expressed and soluble. If you experience problems with protein expression due to low solubility or low expression, we can set up a small scale experiment to test a number of different fusion partners and bacterial host cells.
If you need a larger amount of your protein or if you have problems with low expression levels we can scale up the culture used for protein production. We also offer protein purification using Affinity tags, IEX and SEC.
Graduate courses such as the fast "Cloning, Protein Expression and Purification" (CPEP), "Protein Crystallization" and "Basic Bioinformatics" courses address many topics of high interest for young researchers. Taking our courses enables them to independently solve general problems ranging from sequence analysis, primer design, molecular cloning to protein construct design and purification.
