BioAnalyte supports FDA Intact Protein Expression (IPEx) Mass Spectrometry Approaches for Label-free Relative Quantitation and Biomarker Discovery

Released on = June 18, 2007, 11:12 am

Press Release Author = BioAnalyte, Inc.

Industry = Biotech

Press Release Summary = BioAnalyte announced today that it supports the Intact
Protein Expression (IPEx) mass spectrometry methods developed by the US FDA Center
for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).

Press Release Body = Portland, ME -- BioAnalyte announced today that it supports the
Intact Protein Expression (IPEx) mass spectrometry methods developed by the US FDA
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). IPEx mass spectrometry is an
enhancement of existing analytical methods for profiling complex mixtures of intact
proteins using widely-available liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS)
instrumentation.

\"IPEx mass spectrometry provides rapid assessment of protein expression, both from a
qualitative and a quantitative standpoint,\" said Peter Leopold, Ph.D., president of
BioAnalyte, Inc. \"The FDA\'s refinements of these approaches make them easy to
implement both in the lab and in data analysis. We are excited to bring the focus of
the IPEx techniques into our ProTrawler and Regatta data analysis products.\"

Intact Protein Expression mass spectrometry leverages recent advances in intact
protein separations using liquid chromatography with sensitive, accurate detection
by quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometers. The methods were developed at the
CFSAN site in College Park, MD, by Steven Musser, Ph.D. and Tracie Williams, Ph.D.

After moving to the the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Williams\'s research
continues to refine the IPEx Spectrometry protocol for the analysis of
glycoproteins.

Musser, Williams and colleagues employed the method to identify new protein
biomarkers useful for distinguishing closely related strains of food-borne
pathogens. In several published cases, presence-absence pairs led to the discovery
of unique proteins that distinguish newly-emerging pathogenic forms of Escherichia
coli and Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

After moving to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Williams\'
continues to refine the IPEx mass spectrometry protocol for the analysis of
glycoproteins.

\"IPEx mass spectrometry is valuable for profiling whole protein mixtures for
bacterial identification or pathogenic gene mutation, but it is also may be useful
for detecting minor glycosylation changes in mixtures of glyoproteins,\" Williams
said. \"Changes in protein glycosylation and other post-translational modifications
are being examined as possible contributors to increased virulence of certain
infectious diseases. IPEx may help us make a quick identification of proteins that
have been modified.

Peter Scholl, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, uses
IPEx mass spectrometry to complement Difference Gel Electrophoresis (DIGE.) In a
recent study, Scholl used IPEx to discover global protein expression patterns in rat
liver treated with an anti-tumor drug triterpenoid CDDO-Im. The expression patterns
will be used in elucidating the drug\'s mechanisms of anti-tumor action as well as
other potential effects on liver function.

\"IPEx mass spectrometry aligns the separation power of liquid chromatography with
the mass accuracy and resolution of time-of-flight, creating a MALDI-like ease of
use,\" Leopold said. \"Easy to use methods lower the barriers to multiple analyses,
which facilitates the running of replicates, which improves statistics
tremendously.\"

In the Scholl rat liver study, Scholl obtained abundant information about relative
protein expression with one set of experiments that ran overnight. With the IPEx
results in hand, Scholl\'s group is now able to perform hypothesis-driven MS/MS
sequencing.

About BioAnalyte Inc.

BioAnalyte delivers high performance bioinformatics software and services to leading
laboratories worldwide. It offers cross-platform solutions to facilitate high-speed
interpretation of proteomics and metabolomics data to improve research accuracy and
productivity. BioAnalyte\'s flagship product, ProTrawler(tm), was developed in
partnership with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and led to the landmark
discovery of a protein biomarker for a deadly food-borne bacterium. ProTrawler
eliminates the data processing bottlenecks that are common to laboratories using
instrument vendor-supplied software, dramatically improving productivity and data
accuracy. ProNets(tm), the innovative \'consumable\' software license, makes
ProTrawler software available on a per data set basis. Regatta(tm) is BioAnalyte\'s
label-free quantitation tool kit, facilitating LC/MS alignment, dynamic binning,
hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis for expression regulation.

Web Site = http://www.bioanalyte.com

Contact Details = CONTACT: David Cousins
BioAnalyte Inc.
(tel) (207) 780-6777 ext.205
(fax) (207) 221-1385
David.Cousins at BioAnalyte.com
www.BioAnalyte.com

  • Printer Friendly Format
  • Back to previous page...
  • Back to home page...
  • Submit your press releases...
  •