Patent ID: 7379824

Claim:
A computerized prediction method for predicting the effect of an amino acid modification on the rate of aggregation (solubility) of a reference polypeptide comprising calculating the difference in hydrophobicity (ΔHydr) between the reference polypeptide and a modified polypeptide, calculating the difference in β-sheet propensity (ΔΔG coil-α +ΔΔG β-coil ) between the reference polypeptide and modified polypeptide, calculating the difference in charge (ΔCharge) between the reference polypeptide and modified polypeptide, calculating: [x*ΔHydr]+[y*(ΔΔG coil-α +ΔΔG β-coil )]−[z*ΔCharge], wherein x, y and z are scaling factors; predicting said effect of said amino acid modification on said rate of aggregation (solubility) from [x*ΔHydr]+[y*(ΔΔG coil-α +ΔΔG β-coil )]-[z*ΔCharge], wherein a value for [x*ΔHydr]+[y*(ΔΔG coil-α +ΔΔG β-coil )]−[z*ΔCharge] of a first sign indicates that the modified polypeptide has a greater propensity to aggregate (lower solubility) relative to the reference polypeptide and a value for [x*ΔHydr]+[y*(ΔΔG coil-α +ΔΔG βcoil )]−[z*ΔCharge ] of a sign opposite to the first sign indicates that the modified polypeptide has a reduced propensity to aggregate (higher solubility) relative to the reference polypeptide; and outputting at least one of the calculating steps and the predicting step to at least one of a display and a memory.