About this PandaPure Challenge

Join us in pushing the boundaries of protein expression and purification with the innovative PandaPure technology! The PandaPure Challenge is designed to foster collaboration, spark innovation, and drive scientific discovery.

Participants will be awarded access to PandaPure to explore a range of intriguing proteins and tackle cutting-edge research projects. By contributing data to our manuscripts in preparation, participants will have the opportunity to gain co-authorship on potential high-impact research articles.

Learn more about PandaPure, and our last publication (Guo et al Cell 2022).

Objectives and How to Participate

Our ongoing projects aim to validate and push the limits of PandaPure across a variety of intriguing proteins. There are two ways to participate in this journey:

1. Call for Proposals: Ailurus invites proposals focused on interesting proteins, key functions, specialized characterizations, or practical applications. Proposed proteins and projects should align with one or more of the target themes (see below).

2. PandaPure Blind Box: Dive into the unknown with the PandaPure Blind Box! Each blind box contains plasmids, reagents, and instructions for investigating the properties of an arbitrary protein selected from Ailurus' protein collection that align with the target themes. Follow the instructions, complete the challenge on time, and you will uncover the protein names and their unique stories. Results from different groups will be compared in the final manuscript, highlighting diverse approaches and findings.

Target themes for this challenge:

Expression Difficulty: Explore the new limits of protein expression with PandaPure by focusing on proteins that are notoriously difficult to express due to known reasons, such as those requiring disulfide bonds that are challenging to form in the reductive environment of E. coli cytoplasm.‍

Useful Proteins: Test PandaPure on proteins with significant industrial or therapeutic values that come with well-established functional assays. Applications include recombinant biologics, life science research tools, biocatalysts, the food industry, green chemistry, environmental solutions, biosensors, and more.‍

High-Throughput Screening: Validate PandaPure in high-throughput screening assays for various applications, including pangenomic enzyme mining, random mutagenesis, directed evolution, AI-aided engineering, and de novo design.‍

Scaling-up: Investigate PandaPure's performance in industrial-scale applications, including various designs and volumes of large bioreactors, and fed-batch culture, or continuous culture processes.

Specialized applications: Explore PandaPure applications with specialized downstream workflows that require unique handling or equipment, such as immobilized enzymes, X-ray crystallography, and cryo-EM analysis.‍

Fine-Tuning: Develop optimized growth media, cell culture conditions, and processes to compare current strains with PandaPure-enabled strains. This theme includes process development, metabolic analysis, and even machine-learning-guided optimizations.

What’s in it for You?

Co-Authorship Opportunity: Contribute data to potentially high-impact research articles, gaining recognition and visibility in the scientific community, adding to your professional profile.

Advance Science Together: Join an open-science initiative that emphasizes collective knowledge and innovation. Collaborate closely with fellow scientists and share insights with the broader communities.

Access to Advanced Tools: Be among the first to access Ailurus' cutting-edge technologies and resources that are not yet available on the market, including powerful protein structure prediction and design supports, and extensive regulatory parts and protein collections.

Hands-On Experience with Innovative Tools: Gain practical experience with PandaPure and other emerging technologies, enhancing your lab's capabilities and your personal skill set.

Networking and Collaboration: Build meaningful connections with leading experts in protein expression, synthetic biology, and related fields, potentially opening doors to future research collaborations and partnerships.

Award Details

Selected Principal Investigators (PIs) may receive:

Up to 5× Hi Panda kit or equivalent.

The Ailurus team will meet with the selected group regularly to navigate the project. Eligible contributions to Ailurus' ongoing manuscript will be included with co-authorship. The final award amount and co-authorship will be determined by the Ailurus awards panel. Credits for PandaPure kits will expire 6 months after the award; unused credits will be forfeited.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following criteria to participate in the PandaPure Challenge:

1. Laboratory Access: Participants must have access to laboratories equipped with:

• A basic molecular biology lab setup to carry out protein expression and purification experiments.
• An advanced lab setup to perform functional assays, structural analysis, high-throughput screening, or other specialized analyses as proposed.

2. Primary Investigator (PI) or Equivalent: Applicants must be or apply on behalf of a Primary Investigator or an equivalent authority who will serve as the corresponding person for scientific collaborations between groups or companies. This person will also be responsible for the obligations related to material transfer and its usage.

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Limited Spots Available: We are selecting a small group of researchers to ensure meaningful collaboration. Not all applications that meet eligibility requirements will be selected in this cohort and may be reserved for future opportunities.