Affinity Biochips Find Disease-Indicating Proteins

Affinity biochips have been developed to find disease-indicating proteins or to learn the impact of drugs, chemicals, or pollutants on cellular protein production.

Stratos Biosystems' (Seattle, WA,USA) endothelial cells (EC)-Affinity biochips for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry are based on the company's self-assembling surface chemistry. It represent a new generation of capacity and functionality by providing investigators with a tool for high-throughput affinity chromatography combined with sample focusing to generate the kind of exceptional signal-to-noise ratio necessary for the detection of extremely rare proteins.

EC-Affinity biochips overcome the limitations of past-generation biochips, which lacked the capacity and functionality in biochips needed for the capture, identification, and validation of proteins released into the blood by diseased cells or cancer.

The partners and investors of Stratos Biosystems set out on a very challenging path several years ago. We hoped to create a technology that could have a major impact on early disease detection, drug discovery, and environmental awareness. We are now prepared to have that kind of impact, said Allan Stephan, managing partner/CEO-Stratos Biosystems. With the recent completion of Stratos Biosystems' pilot production capability in San Jose [CA, USA], the company is expanding support for existing collaboration partners working on early cancer detection.

"Stratos Biosystems' preliminary results look impressive. It appears they [have] made a major step forward in mass spectrometry biochips, and my team and I look forward to collaborating with Stratos,” said Sam Hanash, program head of Molecular Diagnostics, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA, USA).


Related Links:
Stratos Biosystems
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center