New Proteins Aid Biomarker Discovery

An additional 250 new proteins have been found in urine, a promising development for the discovery of novel biomarkers for disease. The discovery was reported in the October 11 online issue of Proteome Research.

The proteins were identified by Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Fremont, CA, USA), through the use of the company's Equalizer bead technology in conjunction with its ProteinChip system. This approach exploits solid phase ligand libraries that capture the various species present in urine up to the saturation of the solid phase ligand library. This approach for mining the "unseen proteome” results in a dilution of the more-abundant species, with a concurrent concentration of the dilute and rare species that would normally escape conventional detection methods.

"For decades, clinical chemists like me have been focused on new technologies to find and catalog new relevant protein biomarkers in body fluids that improve disease detection,” said Professor Pier Giorgio Righetti, of the Polytechnic Institute, Milan (Italy), author of the paper. "Given this dramatic increase in the number of proteins discovered in urine based on Ciphergen's new Equalizer bead technology, our dream might not be too far from fruition.”

Prof. Righetti has authored more than 700 scientific publications and two books on proteomics and plays a prominent role in international proteomics organizations. He has recently been appointed to a new research group in proteome analysis at the Polytechnic School in Milan.

"Equalizer bead technology can significantly expand exploration of various proteomes for biomarker discovery to enable applications in translational research and clinical diagnostics,” said William E. Rich, Ph.D., CEO of Ciphergen.




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