Biopeer

Discovery of first interface between mass spectrometry and lab-on-a-chip device

Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed the first multinozzle nanoelectrospray emitter array, which will serve as interface between mass spectrometry and silicon/silica-based microfluidic ‘lab-on-a-chip’ technologies. The emitter has an array of silica nozzles, protruding out of hollow silicon sliver with a conduit size of 100 x 10 microns. These nozzles are designed to reduce clogging problems that arise as the microfluidic channels on a chip downsize to a nanometer scale. “This paves the way for the large scale integration of mass spectrometry and lab-on-a-chip analysis in proteomics research,” said Daojing Wang, scientist, Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division.

Applied Biosystems, an Applera Corporation business, and its joint venture partner, Sciex, a division of MDS Inc.’s Analytical Technologies business has launched Applied Biosystems/MDS SCIEX 4800 MALDI TOF/TOF mass spectrometer and enhancements to ProteinPilot software to assist scientists gain quantitative insight into the study of proteomics. The spectrometer apparently helps the untrained proteomics researchers in achieving higher throughput sample processing, greater depth of proteome coverage, greater statistical rigor, more confident protein detection, and better quantitative results, while the ProteinPilot software claims at augmenting the performance of 4800 Plus and Applied Biosystems iTRAQ reagents.

Research published in the journal ‘Nature’ by UCLA’s Institute of Genomics and Proteomics suggest a possible link between degenerative diseases and protein molecules. Study provides that amyloid fibrils or attached protein molecules stack-up in the brain of patients with Alzheimer and Parkinson’s leading to degenerative disorders. “All of these diseases are similar at the molecular level; all of them have a dry steric zipper. With each disease, a different protein transforms into amyloid fibrils, but the proteins are very similar at the atomic level,” said Professor David Eisenberg, director of UCLA’s Institute of Genomics and Proteomics.

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Genomics and proteomics to increase the efficiency of drug discovery

Bioinformatics and genomics are a wave sweeping through the drug discovery world.  Of course there are issues.

While the United Sates is still the world leader, Europe is having a good deal of success in the field of advanced genomics and proteomics research. Significant government funding together with the presence of large pharmaceutical companies has made Europe a major competitor in the efforts to deploy genomics and proteomics as vital tools in drug discovery and development.

From: Genomics and proteomics to increase efficiency

The shear amount of data that can be generated and needs to be sifted through in order to understand why one person reacts a certain--and unexpected--way to a drug is astounding.  Will just faster computers help?  No.  I think this is going to need totally new ways to analyze and interpret the data.  Regardless, though, this new field is opening up a whole new world of possibilities for drug development.  Exciting times.

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