Patent ID: 7138238

Claim:
A method for evaluating the affinity of one or more ligands for a peptide of interest, comprising the steps of: a) identifying said peptide of interest; b) preparing a sensor to be coupled to said peptide by depositing a Langmuir Blodgett film on said sensor, wherein said Langmuir-Blodgett film is prepared from monolayers formed from a method comprising the steps of: i) providing a composition comprising at least one amphiphilic compound, wherein said amphiphilic compound is a phospholipid which has been coupled to said peptide of interest and said composition contains not more than 25% of a volatile organic solvent; ii) immersing one end of a wettable planar surface into an aqueous subphase, wherein said planar surface forms an angle of about 90–170 degrees to an air/liquid interface of said subphase, and said subphase comprises at least one monovalent cation and at least one bivalent cation; iii) delivering said composition at a rate of about 0.02–4.0 ml per minute to said planar surface to form a monolayer; and iv) compressing said monolayer to an optimal surface pressure; c) depositing said Langmuir-Blodgett film of step b) to said sensor; d) quantifying a signal output from said sensor; e) exposing said sensor to one or more ligands; and quantifying a signal output from said sensor after step e) and comparing to the previously obtained signal from step d) to thereby evaluate the affinity of said one or more ligands for said peptide of interest.