Empirical predictor of conditions that support ideal-filter capillary electrophoresis

Ideal-filter CE (IFCE) is a method for the selection of affinity binders for protein targets from oligonucleotide libraries, for example, random-sequence oligonucleotide libraries and DNA-encoded libraries, in a single step of partitioning. In IFCE, protein-oligonucleotide complexes and unbound oligonucleotides move in the opposite directions, facilitating very high efficiency of their partitioning. For any given protein target and oligonucleotide library, protein-oligonucleotide complexes and unbound oligonucleotides move in the opposite directions only for a limited range of EOF mobilities, which, in turn, corresponds to a limited range of pH and ionic strength values of the running buffer. Rational design of IFCE-based partitioning requires a priori knowledge of this range of pH and ionic strength values, and here we introduce an approach to predict this range for a given type of the running buffer. The approach involves measuring EOF mobilities for a relatively wide range of pH and ionic strength (I) values and finding an empirical predictor function that related the EOF mobility with pH and ionic strength. In this work, we developed a predictor function for a running buffer (Tris-HCl) that is commonly used in CE-based partitioning of affinity binders for protein targets. This predictor function can be immediately used for the rational design of IFCE-based partitioning in this running buffer, while the described approach will be used to develop predictor functions for other types of running buffer if needed.