Partner 11

Short name: PHX

Principal Investigator: Dr. Iain Pemberton, Photeomix

Host Institution: Photeomix is the commercial name of IP Research Consulting SAS, a french based SME set up by Dr Iain Pemberton in 2005 with activities in protein biomarker discovery and translational medicine. Photeomix is actively engaged in the research for new biomarkers for the diagnosis, prognosis and stratification of human and animal diseases. We are developing new disease-specific tools for protein profiling using bioaffinity MALDItof & SELDItof MS. Our research is also focused on gaining a better understanding of the molecular basis of disease. We aim to provide new clinical drug targets and drug treatment strategies in medical areas that currently are poorly understood.

SELDItof MS is emerging as a valuable tool in phosphoproteomics, facilitating the analysis of cellular signatures of phosphorylation status, and allowing the subsequent quantitative comparison of the extent of phosphorylation both in vivo and in vitro. The expertise offered by photeomix in this domain will provide the necessary know-how to exploit the power of affinity MS based phosphoproteomics in a standardised screening assay for anti-leishmania lead compounds

Dr Iain Pemberton obtained his Ph.D. in 1993 at the University of London, Royal Hospital Medical College under the guidance of virologist Prof. John Oxford for early work on HIV-1 DNA integration. This work was supported by the EU and later by a three-year medical research council grant awarded to Iain Pemberton and John Oxford. Iain Pemberton continued to persue this research topic at the Pasteur Institute, alongside Dr Malcolm Buckle, by turning his attention to laser UV crosslinking methods in order to define the protein-DNA structural requirements necessary to form active DNA integration intermediates. Iain Pemberton has published a variety of original molecular techniques applied to UV photocrossling, DNA transcription/recombination and protein-DNA interactions. Since 2000, he has worked in the private sector, first heading a laboratory developing novel recombination based cloning systems before taking on the responsibility of the HPLC quality contol for a company producing recombinant proteins under good manufacturing practice (GMP) guidelines. Iain Pemberton was trained by Ciphergen Inc. in SELDItof MS profiling techniques in 2003 and has worked closely with the technology ever since, presenting data on novel uses of SELDItof MS in protein interaction analysis at international meetings. In 2005, Iain Pemberton created Photeomix.

Selected Publications:

1. Auner H, Buckle M, Deufel A, Kutateladze T, Lazarus L, Mavathur R, Muskhelishvili G, Pemberton I, Schneider R, Travers A. (2003) Mechanism of transcriptional activation by FIS: role of core promoter structure and DNA topology. J Mol Biol. 331(2):331-44.

2. Pemberton IK, Muskhelishvili G, Travers AA, Buckle M. 2002) FIS modulates the kinetics of successive interactions of RNA polymerase with the core and upstream regions of the tyrT promoter. J Mol Biol 318(3):651-63.
3. Pemberton IK (2000) Analysis of protein-DNA interactions in complex nucleoprotein assemblies In DNA-Protein Interactions pp 307 – 317 Oxford University Press.
4. Malcolm Buckle, Cristophe Place and Iain K Pemberton (2000) Laser UV photoreactivity of nucleoprotein complexes in vitro. In DNA-Protein Interactions pp 189 – 2001 Oxford University Press.