Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc. And MRM Proteomics Sign An Exclusive Worldwide Commercial Supply Agreement

Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc. and MRM Proteomics sign an exclusive worldwide commercial supply agreement for PeptiQuant™ kits

BOSTON & VICTORIA, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc. (CIL), the world’s leading supplier of stable isotopes and stable isotope-enriched small molecules, is working together with MRM Proteomics, Inc. (MRMP), a leading supplier of kits and services for quantitative proteomics to improve quantitative proteomics through quality control and standardization. Many researchers in academics and the life science industries are striving to discover and validate protein and metabolite biomarkers that can be used to diagnose and predict the progression or treatment for disease, and mass spectrometry is commonly used in these studies. A common problem in such studies is that the sample sets are small due to the complexity of the experiments, and each laboratory has its own procedures for calibrating and qualifying the mass spectrometry platforms used. To validate biomarkers discovered in these smaller studies, larger studies must be performed under rigorously controlled conditions.

To support standardized quantitative proteomics workflows for biomarker discovery and validation, MRMP has developed assays using Stable Isotope Standard (SIS) labeled peptides as standards to enable robust and precise quantitation of protein biomarkers, in a highly multiplexed workflow using mass spectrometry, known in its abbreviated form as LC-MRM/MS. MRMP is now making sets of these SIS standards available in PeptiQuant™ kits that contain all reagents and methods required to perform experiments to quantitate proteins, with the first Biomarker Assessment Kit (BAK) allowing for 76 proteins associated with various diseases to be quantitated in a single experiment. To further standardize and enhance the quality of quantitative proteomics experiments, MRMP is also providing PeptiQuant QC kits to allow researchers to qualify their workflows and LC-MRM/MS platforms. Under the terms of the agreement, CIL will have exclusive selling rights to MRMP’s PeptiQuant™ kits used for quantitative proteomics, and CIL will provide distribution for the products worldwide. CIL and MRMP also plan to extend the product range with further BAK kits for specific disease areas and into quantitative metabolomics for use in the discovery and validation of metabolic biomarkers.

Gary Kruppa, CEO of MRMP, stated, “CIL is the world's leading producer and supplier of stable isotope-enriched small molecules to the mass spectrometry community. In fact, we use CIL isotopically enriched amino acids in the synthesis of the SIS included in our PeptiQuant kits. CIL knows our market and customers already and has excellent sales and distribution channels worldwide. We are delighted to be working with a company that is so well regarded and so well suited to sell and distribute our PeptiQuant™ kits.”

Maureen Duffy, VP of Sales and Marketing at CIL, commented, "CIL has taken a serious approach in providing researchers the tools to aid in biomarker discovery and development. MRMP's strong technical know-how and leadership in both quantitative proteomics and clinical diagnostics fits well into CIL's portfolio. We are looking forward to working with MRM and to make these kits accessible to researchers worldwide."

About Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc.

Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc. (www.isotope.com) is the world's premier supplier of stable isotopes and stable isotope-labeled compounds for research applications in structural biology, proteomics, genomics, molecular biology, metabolic research, clinical and diagnostic research and ultra-trace environmental analysis. With laboratory facilities located in four countries - the United States, Canada, Germany and France - CIL is able to specialize in the process of labeling biochemical and organic compounds with highly enriched stable (non-radioactive) isotopes of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. For more information on CIL, visit http://www.isotope.com.

About MRM Proteomics, Inc.

MRM Proteomics, Inc. provides advanced proteomics kits and services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics industries in key areas such as biomarker discovery/validation, clinical studies, diagnostics research and toxicology. As a leader in targeted proteomics approaches, we specialize in the highly multiplexed quantitation of >100 protein biomarkers in complex biological samples such as blood, cerebrospinal fluid, urine and other fluids/tissues. MRMP workflows use Multiple Reaction Monitoring-Mass Spectrometry (MRM-MS) with isotopically labeled internal standards to achieve unparalleled specificity and sensitivity. This approach uses minimal sample volumes (20ul) and does not require depletion of high-abundance proteins. MRM Proteomics Inc. was established in 2010 as a spin-out company to commercialize the cutting-edge proteomics technologies, tools and know-how developed at the University of Victoria-Genome BC Proteomics Centre.