Antigen and Epitope Discovery
Why screen for antigenic targets?
Antigen and epitope discovery involves large-scale screening to identify unknown targets for antibodies or other binding molecules. This process is crucial for various applications:
- Identifying unknown targets for autoantibodies
In autoimmune diseases, discovering unknown autoantigens can lead to better understanding and treatment options. - Screening for disease biomarkers
Identifying specific antigens associated with diseases can facilitate the development of diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies. - Vaccine development
Discovering novel antigens and epitopes is key for creating effective vaccines against pathogens. - Therapeutic antibody development
Identifying and characterizing new antigens can lead to the development better targeted therapies for various diseases.
Our approach: analyze mutiple targets in a single assay
Thanks to our printing technology, PEPperCHIP® Peptide Microarrays are the most economic platform for large-scale discovery in a single step. Screen entire pathogen proteomes for epitope markers for disease or immunity, identify immunogenic hotspots, or characterize changes in antibody response patterns. The flexibility of the PEPperCHIP® platform allows the step-wise screening from up to 35,000 peptides for hit discovery down to handful peptides for hit validation.
| PEPperCHIP® Discovery format | PEPperCHIP® Standard format | |
|---|---|---|
| Microarray content | Single to multiple antigens translated into overlapping peptides | Single to multiple antigens translated into overlapping peptides |
| Pre-designed content available | PEPperCHIP® Human Epitome Microarray, or random peptides for immunosignature discovery | PEPperCHIP® Standard Peptide Microarrays (over 40 different microarrays available) |
| Number of peptides | Up to 35,000 (in duplicate) | Up to 5,500 (in duplicate) |
| Available peptide conformations | Linear and cyclic constrained peptides | Linear and cyclic constrained peptide |
| Built-in control peptides | HA (YPYDVPDYAG) epitopes by default | HA (YPYDVPDYAG) epitopes by default |
| Input data (for custom content) | Peptide list, Database ID, or protein sequence(s) in the FASTA format | Peptide list, Database ID, or protein sequence(s) in the FASTA format |
| Sample material | At least 70 µL per sample | At least 20 µL per sample |
Antigen and epitope discovery in action
Antigen and epitope discovery is a critical step in advancing our understanding of disease mechanisms and developing new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Learn how discovery with PEPperCHIP® Peptide Microarrays can accelerate your research by exploring some of our selected case studies and customer publications.
Application notes
- Epitope Discovery and Validation of Vaccination-Induced Antibody Responses with PEPperCHIP® Peptide Microarrays and a Bead-Based Multiplex Assay
- IgG and IgA Antibody Profiling with the PEPperCHIP® Infectious Disease Epitope Microarray
Posters
- Discovery of serotype-specific epitope biomarkers for the diagnosis of Dengue virus infections
- Closing the gap in early diagnosis of autoimmune rheumatic diseases: discovery of novel biomarkers using high-density peptide microarrays
Cited publications
- A quantitative and site-specific atlas of the citrullinome reveals widespread existence of citrullination and insights into PADI4 substrates (Rebak et al. 2024)
- A high-throughput pipeline for design and selection of peptides targeting the SARS-Cov-2 Spike protein (Wolfe et al. 2021)
- High-throughput epitope profiling of antibodies in the plasma of Alzheimer’s disease patients using random peptide microarrays (Sim et al. 2019)