Proteomic System Will Further Biomarker Research

A new instrument system and software have been designed to assist the growing number of life scientists involved in biomarker research.

The study of protein biomarkers is important to life scientists because the identification of biomarkers can indicate the presence and progression of a variety of diseases or response to drugs. Central to this research is the science of proteomics through which thousands of proteins in a biologic sample--e.g., tissues, cells, serum, urine, cerebrospinal fluid--can be analyzed in the same experiment to obtain a snapshot of the proteome. To discover new biomarker candidates, these snapshots need to be compared quantitatively against other samples, such as healthy versus diseased samples, so the complex differences that exist in biologic systems can be found and exploited.

The discovery of protein biomarkers requires large numbers of sample sets and simplified data output produced on proteomics research platforms. Much biomarker research is conducted by biologic scientists who are not necessarily proteomics experts. The new advances from Applied Biosystems (Foster City, CA, USA; www.appliedbiosystems.com) and its venture partner, MDS Scieux (Mississauga, Canada) are designed to enable non-expert instrument users to achieve higher throughput sample processing, greater depth of proteome coverage, greater statistical rigor, more confident protein detection, and better quantitative results.

Utilizing proteomics products from Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex, a study identified 23 biomarker candidates that were associated with the presence of Alzheimer's disease, and may provide links to the pathologic mechanisms of the disease. The scientists involved in the study cited the discovery as a potential breakthrough. Currently, there are no definitive tests available for the diagnosis of the disease in living subjects, with confirmation of its existence normally being made after the death of a patient.

The 4800 Plus Maldi Tof/Tof analyzer is a proteomics analyzer that can identify thousands of proteins in a biologic sample. The enhancements from the previous version of the system provide an improved platform to better support the larger sample studies that proteomics researchers are moving towards, especially for biomarker discovery.

A new version of ProteinPilot software is designed to maximize the information that can be obtained from the combination of the 4800 Plus and Applied Biosystems iTraq reagents. It delivers more accurate protein detection, easier manageability, and broader support for quantitation, thereby providing greater confidence in the results.

These latest tools are designed to be compatible with the future commercial release of the 8-plex version of Applied Biosystems iTraq reagents, a labeling chemistry allowing scientists and biologists to quantitatively compare proteins between samples. The 8-plex version of these reagents is expected to increase the number of samples that can be compared simultaneously, providing higher throughput, better accuracy, and greater statistical confidence in research results.


Related Links:
Applied Biosystems
MDS Sciex