PROfusion: genetically tagged proteins for functional proteomics and beyond.

As a new enabling technology in functional genomics, Phylos, Inc. has pioneered PROfusiontrade mark technology, whereby proteins are covalently tagged with their own genetic information (mRNA). Using this technology, both synthetic and natural libraries (representing the repertoire of proteins naturally expressed in a given cell type or tissue source) have been constructed. Due to the in vitro nature of library construction, Phylos libraries are the largest described to date, up to 10(14) in size. From a library of such molecules, one can select for a protein function of choice with the benefit that the genetic material is linked to the protein for subsequent PCR amplification, enrichment, and, ultimately, identification. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.