mipfe

Index

In many publications the biophysical and structural characteristics of molecular components are ambiguous because they have not been evaluated or made available. As a result, there is a pressing need to implement policies for the transparent and rigorous reporting of data in all publications concerning the use of proteins. For example in the evaluation of the native state of proteins used for in protein interaction experiments (e.g., pull-downs, surface plasmon resonance, antibody/protein microarrays, isothermal titration calorimetry). Furthermore it is often ignored that recombinant proteins form not only insoluble precipitates, but also soluble aggregates, mostly when carriers are fused to improve solubility. Such aggregates may retain some function and therefore, without control experiments aimed at defining monodispersity and native structure, the interpretation of experimental results is ambiguous. Therefore, access to the raw data by the scientific community would improve the usability and interpretation of the published findings.

In order to offer a workable solution for describing the Minimal Information for Protein Functionality Evaluation (MIPFE) we propose a repository solution in which to store the relevant results concerning protein construct features and biophysical characterization. On this website we have designed a loosely structured text form allowing authors to describe the minimal information from an experiment that can be made available to reviewers, editors and readers. Once deposited and validated, the dataset is given a unique handle which can be referred to in the published manuscripts.

Only a minimal amount of obligatory information concerning the construct must be provided by the authors in the MIPFE form, in order to allow unambiguous data reporting and avoid possible annotation misinterpretation. In addition the form does allow for raw data to be described and deposited, encouraging users to provide as complete an entry as possible.