Chromato-panning: an efficient new mode of identifying suitable ligands from phage display libraries

Background: Phage Display technology is a well established technique for high throughput screening of affinity ligands. Here we describe a new compact chromato-panning procedure for selection of suitable binders from a phage peptide display library. Results: Both phages and E. coli cells pass non-hindered through the interconnected pores of macroporous gel, so called cryogel. After coupling a ligand to a monolithic cryogel column, the phage library was applied on the column and non-bound phages were washed out. The selection of strong phage-binders was achieved already after the first panning cycle due to the efficient separation of phage-binders from phage-non-binders in chromatographic mode rather than in batch mode as in traditional biopanning procedures. E. coli cells were applied on the column for infection with the specifically bound phages. Conclusion: Chromato-panning allows combining several steps of the panning procedure resulting in 4-8 fold decrease of total time needed for phage selection.