Singapore: SCIEX, a global leader in life science analytical technologies, has collaborated with the laboratory of Dr Amanda Paulovich at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, to make targeted proteomics in cancer research more reproducible and specific.

The collaboration provides SCIEX rights to commercialize the immuno-MRM assays that have been developed in the Paulovich Laboratory, a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium.

The effort aligned with the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) strategy to make technology more widely accessible through public/private partnerships, will result in commercially available assays that quantitatively measure phosphorylated and unmodified proteins known to be involved in cancer signaling pathways.

Targeted proteomics was named Method of the Year by Nature Methods in 2013, and Dr Christie Hunter at SCIEX was awarded the Human Proteome Organization’s 2013 Science and Technology Award for her contributions to the development and commercialization of this technology.

To extend the reach of this technology, and make it more sensitive, and more routine and reproducible, an augmented approach is required over direct-MRM. Immuno-MRM assays combine the best features of immunoassays and mass spectrometry to provide highly reproducible, specific and sensitive quantification of target proteins, including phosphorylated proteins. However, a lack of availability of off-the-shelf content for this technique has been holding the field back, and this partnership aims to redress that.