Oxford Glyco/Rosetta - the key connection.
Oxford Glyco Science is the world leader in Proteomics technology, and from their web site under "proteomics technology" the following paragraphs describe this key relationship:
"For many years the study of proteins has been a laborious exercise, but today this is finally being addressed with technological advances allowing the high-throughput analysis of proteins. OGS' key technologies are:
Sample preparation Collection, logging and preparation of tissues or other biological samples. For each sample, OGS records in its databases all donor information using the ROSETTA™ software. Each sample is subsequently tracked by its unique bar code;
Protein separation OGS has pioneered the development of fluorescent IPG-PAGE and has introduced a number of innovative advances, such as the use of matrices stabilized by bonding to glass plates, in order to improve the speed, versatility and reproducibility of the process and to enable archiving of the resolved protein expression maps;
Digital imaging
The proteins are stained using a highly sensitive, fluorescent dye, they are then imaged using a sensitive proprietory fluorescent scanner and advanced imaging software. These digital images are accessed using the ROSETTA™ software, which stores related data in OGS' databases;
Protein abundance analysis
Using the digital images, OGS can electronically compare large numbers of diseased and control samples in order to determine statistically significant differences in the abundance of proteins. The output of this process can be displayed graphically by the ROSETTA™ software
Protein identification and characterisation
The identification process is largely automated and undertaken by the ROSETTA™ software. An identification of many of the proteins is made by reference to their original position in a protein expression map. A protein of interest is excised (using a proprietary, high precision robotic cutting device), processed and cleaved into a number of peptide fragments. The amino acid sequences of individual fragments are determined using sophisticated mass spectrometry approaches and then compared using proprietary algorithms (part of the ROSETTA™ software) with protein and genomic databases accessible to OGS. If no match is found amino acid sequences are determined de novo.
Key Elements of the technology
Protein Processing & Analysis: Fluorescent IPG-PAGE, HPLC, mass spectrometry.
Bioinformatics:
(ROSETTA™ Software) Imaging of protein expression maps. Identification of differences in normal vs diseased states. Elucidation of amino acid sequences by cross-reference to OGS accessible databases (public and private domain)
Robotics:
(ProteoGraph™) Ensure analytical process is accurate, reproducible and enables high throughput & automation" |
