Proteome Sciences to Develop Cancer Pathway Profiling Assays
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Proteome Sciences has announced its largest contract to date, a technology agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific, valued at $2.1million by Proteome Sciences, to develop advanced methods to profile changes in key cancer pathways.
Proteome Sciences will provide Thermo Fisher with access to its patents covering a three-stage mass spectrometry (MS3) fragmentation methodology to deliver significantly improved analysis and accuracy.
Proteome Sciences will receive cash and Thermo Fisher will provide a no-cost lease for mass spectrometry equipment for Proteome Sciences to develop the pathway assays.
In addition Proteome Sciences will continue to develop advanced 20 and 30-plex Tandem Mass Tags (TMT®) for Thermo Fisher for the next additions to the TMT® range of tags.
The new MS3 TMT® (three-stage MS Tandem Mass Tag) mass spectrometry technique is a breakthrough mass spectrometry based workflow, enabling mass spectrometers to determine relative quantitation of proteins in multiple samples simultaneously and with improved accuracy.
“We are at a critical juncture toward the development of personalized medicine which requires high-resolution maps of the protein networks regulating disease,” said Dr. Ian Pike, Chief Operating Officer at Proteome Sciences.
Dr. Pike continued, “The combination of the highest sample multiplexing rates from TMT with the industry-leading Thermo Scientific Orbitrap mass spectrometer enables us to provide an unrivalled platform to investigate subtle but significant changes in the proteome.”
Proteome Sciences will leverage the combined power of TMT® and Orbitrap® technology to develop an expanded range of mass spectrometry assays for the pharmaceutical industry.
Through its SysQuant® workflows, Proteome will profile the low-level changes in activity of key cancer signalling pathways to facilitate optimal drug selection across a range of solid tumours.
This will enable clinicians to provide real-time patient management and the ability, for the first time, to deliver truly personalized medicine.
“Life sciences researchers today need to perform high-quality relative quantitation of many samples quickly,” said Ian Jardine, Chief Technology Officer, Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Jardine continued, “MS3 TMT® technology greatly improves quantitative accuracy and throughput, while Orbitrap® technology dramatically increases depth and quality of data. This agreement offers customers a new paradigm in proteomics research.”
“Our agreement with Thermo Fisher sets a new benchmark to establish and apply novel diagnostic and prognostic strategies in healthcare management,” said Christopher Pearce, Chief Executive of Proteome Sciences. “It has long been our goal to provide clinicians the tools they need to provide early diagnosis of disease and better match molecular targeting medicines to the most likely responders. The output from this agreement should have a profound positive impact on the lives of large numbers of patients suffering from chronic diseases and, at the same time, provide considerable economic benefits to the health care system.”
