Magnetic bead sample preparation improves sample capacity, dynamic range, and flexibility for clinical proteomics, while decreasing costs
Bruker Daltonics has announced that it is entering the tools market for peptide/protein biomarker discovery and clinical proteomics research.
The company's ClinProt solution combines proprietary magnetic bead based sample preparation methods and AnchorChip technology with high-performance Maldi-Tof and Maldi-Tof/Tof analysis, as well as bioinformatics capabilities for a complete systems solution.
The new ClinProt research system for biomarker discovery is available for demonstration and customer collaborations at the company's research and demonstration facilities in Leipzig, Germany, and Billerica, USA.
Clinical proteomics research by mass spectrometry is a rapidly growing segment of the overall proteomics market.
It is expected to have a profound impact on molecular diagnostics at the peptide and protein level, with the potential to detect, classify and monitor the response to therapy of many diseases, particularly cancer.
Professor Paul Tempst of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York commented: "Our clinical proteomics research here at MSKCC on differentiating various cancer types from controls and from each other via Maldi-Tof analysis of blood serum is advancing very rapidly and is generating a great deal of excitement among many oncologists.
Maldi-Tof and Maldi-Tof/Tof analysis provides for the simultaneous measurement of large numbers of polypeptides, which appear to have substantial diagnostic potential for cancer".
Karen Vaccaro, vice president of R and D at Matritech, explained: "We have been focusing on clinical proteomics for cancer diagnostic tests since the inception of the company.
Our NMP22 bladder cancer tests have been approved by the FDA for both monitoring and screening.
We are now working on blood-based breast and prostate cancer test procedures on the Bruker Daltonics UltraFlex Tof/Tof.
We have invested heavily in Maldi-Tof/Tof technology in order to investigate and develop peptide and protein biomarkers for these diagnostic purposes.
We are also using the de novo sequencing capabilities of Maldi-Tof/Tof to identify and understand the underlying biomarkers".
Automated sample preparation is a key component of any biomarker discovery system.
Bruker Daltonics is introducing a proprietary magnetic bead based system for the selective capture and enrichment of certain classes of peptides and proteins directly from serum, or from other biological samples.
This sample preparation technology is automated on Bruker Daltonics's ClinProt liquid handling robots in 96-well microtiter plate formats for throughput and reproducibility.
Various magnetic bead types with different chemical or biological functionalities are available for exploratory biomarker studies, including normal phase, anionic, cationic, hydrophobic and metal-ion beads.
Magnetic beads with specific biological recognition and capture properties are under development, or can be developed in collaboration with customers.
