Alliance on Nannoarray Protein Assays

A research collaboration has been formed to create premalignant and proteomic-based drug screening assays for the protein profiling of human tissue biopsy samples and for monitoring therapy during clinical trials. The members of the collaboration are the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and BioForce Nanosciences, Inc. (Ames, Iowa, USA).

The aim of the research to adapt reverse-phase protein microarray technology developed by the FDA/NCI Clinical Proteomics Program to the NanoArray platform of Bioforce. The NanoArray technology is well-suited for measuring protein profiles in human biopsy samples during premalignant cancer progression due to the ultra-miniature, cross- platform readout capability format that offers high sensitivity and data density, says BioForce. Conventional technology is limited by the requirement for large amounts of starting sample material, whereas NanoArrays utilize about 1/10,000th of the surface area occupied by a conventional microarray. This results in a 1,000-fold smaller surface area covered per domain and therefore a 1,000-fold smaller requirement for precious starting sample material like proteins.

"Integration of proprietary NanoArrays as the platform for this critical disease diagnostic strategy will allow the acquisition of key data from samples as small as a single cell,” said Dr. Gary A. Alianell, CEO and president of BioForce. The company is applying its nanoarray technologies to the areas of protein-protein interaction profiling, disease identification, and drug discovery.





Related Links:
BioForce