I am forwarding some feedback from Millipore, vendors of ZipTip, on
the recent IMAC ZipTip discussion as I think our members would be
interested to read them.
Hi Len:
I've been watching your messages on the newsgroup and have a few
comments. I am the inventor of ZipTip and am responsible for new product
development. The introduction of ZipTipMC for phosphopeptides was a
balancing act. After reading the literature on the use of IMAC for
phosphopeptides, it was clear that scientists were quite split on
whether it really worked. However, for those who managed to get the
chemistry to work, it was quite beneficial, because there was no other
easy way. When we launched the product, we knew that it was not going to
work for all sequences and hence we put the disclaimers in the operating
instructions. Nonetheless, we felt that the product could provide a
useful tool to some customers. This was a risky decision because it
balanced the possibility of helping a portion of our customers while
potentially upsetting others- - -possibly to the detriment of the ZipTip
reputation.
Looking back, if I had to do it all over, I would probably still [have]
launched it. The reason is that we have helped a few labs to advance
their research. Fundamentally, having IMAC in a ZipTip is a good idea,
if just to have the chemistry capability. However, from a product
introduction standpoint, it really helps to have an application that
scientists can relate to, hence phosphopeptides.
The issue that we are encountering is that there are others like
yourself that are not having good luck with the IMAC chemistry in this
application. For this, I would like to personally apologize for any
inconvenience that this has caused. I hope that the explanation above
explains our reasoning.
Millipore
You need not offer apologies. I was one of the researchers pressing
Millipore to make IMAC ZipTips as it is a potentially useful tool for
those of us who do not have the benefits of triple quads. However, as
you say it is not an easy science and for some is already proving
its worth. Are you continuing to investigate this product in terms of
exploring different chemistries or applicability to different types
of phosphorylated sequences (rather than just beta-casein)?
Len
Regarding additional investigation of the IMAC chemistry, with the
exception of a few low key outside collaborations, we've probably closed
the book on this chapter. Although the subtleties of sequence/PO4 as it
relates to IMAC binding would be a fascinating graduate research project,
unfortunately its not something that I can pursue at this time.
Lastly, if you are going to ABRF (I won't be attending), I would like to
invite you to view our poster on hydrophilic interaction chromatography.
ZipTips with this chemistry were shown to very effective for removing
detergents and stains from peptides.
Millipore
-- ********************************************************************* Dr Len C. Packman Assistant Director of Research Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Facility Department of Biochemistry University of Cambridge 80 Tennis Court Road Old Addenbrookes Site Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK Tel: +44 (1223) 333639 FAX: +44 (1223) 766002 e-mail: lcp2@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk Visit my WWW page at http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/proj/adr/PNAC/pnac.html
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