We had series of discussions and deliberations with Prof. Nair to understand how we could modify the aptamer and enhance its selectivity to certain region. We also finalized our site of choice, 231-Threonine in phosphorylated Tau441. During these set of discussion, Prof. Nair suggested that we seek information from an expert. He connected us with one of his colleagues, Dr. Nagendran Ramalingam, from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Nagendran Ramalingam was so excited upon hearing the idea that he invited his colleagues Prof. Jean-Pierre Bellier and Prof. Lei Liu, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. They too shared much enthusiasm about the idea and were positive about its outcomes. However, they were sceptical about certain points and raised their concerns about the difficulties they believed we would face.
The idea of phosphorylation, though could be used, was to be carefully planned and executed. Prof. Liu had the same opinion as most others we consulted about the process of SELEX, given the time constraint. From the meeting we received valuable inputs regarding phosphorylation, cell health assay and pseudo-SELEX process among others.
Halfway through our work, we had another meeting to update Dr. Ramalingam and his colleagues about the progress and received feedback for the same. They did help us plan our work efficiently, and also provided us with suggestions on testing and finalization of our aptamer.
