Chemical inkjet printer offers a new approach to peptide mass fingerprinting and protein macroarray analysis with widespread applications in biomedical and diagnostic discovery
The new Chemical Inkjet Printer (ChIP) from Shimadzu Biotech and Proteome Systems offers researchers a revolutionary new approach to peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) and protein macroarray analysis.
Developed in conjunction with the leading proteomics company Proteome Systems, ChIP is a unique technology platform for micro-scale on-membrane protein identification and characterisation with widespread applications in biomedical and diagnostic discovery.
Many important proteins are only available in limited amounts for multiple proteomics investigations and unlike DNA, there is no process equivalent to PCR to amplify proteins.
Using current methods, the entire sample on a protein array is sacrificed in order to perform identification and characterisation.
ChIP employs state-of-the-art nanotechnology fluidics, enabling microprinting to be carried out on just a fraction of a protein spot.
This allows further study on the remainder of bioactive materials, which could prove invaluable for precious clinical samples.
ChIP's piezoelectric 'drop-on-demand' ink-jet technology allows for the precise delivery of picolitre volumes of reagents to defined locations on a PVDF membrane.
The system can deliver up to four different chemistries to the same spot, allowing for multiple enzyme digests on one spot and thereby increasing sequence coverage of a protein.
Using ChIP, proteomics researchers can save time and resources as they no longer have to carry out time-consuming in-gel digestion, peptide extraction and C18 ZipTip clean-up steps.
The technology can also rapidly dispense multiple antibodies to screen for antigens in minutes rather than hours, transforming previously slow and labour-intensive Western blotting protocols into rapid, quantitative and automated techniques.
Tetsuo Ichikawa, chairman of Shimadzu Biotech commented: "The Chemical Inkjet Printer represents a completely new approach to micro-scale proteomics research, especially as it can seamlessly integrate with our Axima family of Maldi Tof instruments for protein identification." Keith Williams, CEO of Proteome Systems, said: "The Chemical Inkjet Printer is the pivotal technology to evolve from the relationship with Shimadzu Biotech.
We believe that it will become a defining instrument in any large scale proteomics program."
