Caprion Proteomics and Applied Biosystems Work Together to Accelerate Protein Biomarker Verification and Validation
Combination of industry-leading services with unique QTRAP(R) technology
MONTREAL, May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Caprion Proteomics Inc. today announced that it is working with Applied Biosystems, a division of Life Technologies Corporation , to accelerate the verification and validation of protein biomarker candidates toward potential use in clinical settings. Caprion is extending its leadership in mass spectrometry-based biomarker services by applying QTRAP(R) technology for the development and deployment of Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) assays to advance the clinical validation of biomarker candidates. Caprion will discuss this scientific initiative at the Biomarker World Congress 2009 conference this week in Philadelphia.
Discovery of a significant number of biomarker candidates in academia and industry has created the need to verify and validate these markers in large-scale projects to determine the most promising for clinical development. Caprion specializes in large-scale studies of biomarkers as a service for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as for government agencies. Applied Biosystems provides mass spectrometry technology that complements Caprion's long-standing strength in biomarker discovery to address the need to advance candidates along the biomarker continuum.
QTRAP technology, which was developed by the Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies joint venture, enables integrated quantitative and qualitative analysis through the MIDAS workflow for fast MRM assay development and accurate quantitative results. This makes it the technology of choice for Caprion to expand its quantitative capabilities into this rapidly emerging field.
For the many instances where there are no available commercial assays for a given set of protein biomarker candidates, the MRM technique offers a faster and more cost-effective alternative to established enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) development approaches. MRM assays can be developed within a matter of weeks and enables the quantitative parallel tracking of large numbers of biomarker candidates through a multiplex high-throughput format. This technique, therefore, has the potential to unlock significant value from the scores of genomics, proteomics and other biomarker candidates that have not yet progressed to the validation stage.
The mass-spectrometry-based technique can also prove advantageous in cases where specificity is required and specific post translational modifications or protein isoforms are critical to monitor but difficult to differentiate by antibody techniques.
This joint effort is another example of both companies working with industry leaders to help fulfill the promise of proteomics for a variety of applications, such as personalized medicine, clinical pharmacology and diagnostics. By extending its best-in-class service for biomarker advancement beyond the discovery phase into validation and assay development, Caprion is building on its momentum created by its exclusive strategic alliance on proteomic biomarkers with Covance Inc., as well as its vast experience in the field, including work on more than 30 biomarker studies for 20 large pharmaceutical and biotech clients, plus two large multi-year, multi-million dollar bio-defense contracts for the NIH-NIAID.
"With the advent of MRM assays, which we have now put into practice with the help of QTRAP technology, we are changing the way scientists view biomarker research by offering superior services that make it more cost-effective and productive for pharmaceutical and biotech organizations to not only undertake biomarker programs, but to carry them through to their intended clinical use," said Daniel Chelsky, Chief Scientific Officer of Caprion. "We believe that the availability and use of MRM instrumentation and assays will expand the market for biomarker discovery, verification and validation."
David Hicks, Senior Director of Applied Biosystems' Pharmaceutical and Proteomics business, added, "Our initiative for protein biomarker verification and validation puts a priority on teaming up with other leading scientists who are committed to the same goal of accelerating the progress of biomarkers. The technology has evolved to the point where working with organizations, such as Caprion, is more rapidly unlocking the potential of protein biomarkers and helping to advance the proteomics field."
About Caprion Proteomics
Caprion Proteomics is the leading provider of proteomics based services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Caprion's proprietary proteomics discovery technology, CellCarta(R), is a gel-free, label-free mass spectrometry platform that enables a comprehensive, quantitative and robust measurement of the protein expression differences across large sets of biological samples. Caprion has been providing biomarker and target identification services since 2002, performing more than 30 large-scale biomarker projects for pharmaceutical industry clients such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Biogen Idec, Daiichi-Sankyo, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Wyeth, AstraZeneca, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim, ICOS, Bayer-Schering , EMD-Serono, Vertex, DebioPharm and Transgene. Caprion also has been awarded two consecutive 5-year US$13 million contracts for Biodefense proteomics research in the area of infectious diseases with the NIH-NIAID. Caprion recently entered into a worldwide strategic marketing and distribution alliance for biomarker services with Covance Inc. which also involved the purchase by Covance of a minority equity stake in the company. Caprion Proteomics, a privately-held company, is majority owned by Great Point Partners, LP. For more information, please visit: www.caprion.com.
Copyright 2009. QTRAP is a registered trademark of Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies, a joint venture between Applied Biosystems LLC and MDS Inc.
CONTACT: Didier Jean-Francois, Director of Marketing and Business
Development of Caprion Proteomics Inc., +1-514-228-3625,
dfrancois@caprion.com, or Anthony Petrucci of Life Technologies, Public
Relations, +1-508-383-7961, anthony.petrucci@lifetech.com
Web site: http://www.caprion.com/