Caveat receptor: Proteomes on display

Display methods development is currently extending the application of this strategy beyond the generation of ligand binding reagents for research, cli nical, or biotechnological purposes to its use as a primary research tool P eptide- and cDNA display methods have the potential to contribute to unders tanding the mechanisms of certain classes of drugs and to help map protein- protein interactions of physiological importance. Although the critical con tribution of comprehensive amino acid sequence databases has been recognize d, of equal importance might be structural genomics concepts in the applica tion of display system technology to proteomics research. Lessons learned f rom the study of antibody-antigen interactions are reviewed here and applie d to the field of display technology with the goal of delineating major fac tors involved in the successful mimicry of natural protein-ligand interacti ons.