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OXFORD, UK, July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Oxford GlycoSciences Plc (LSE: OGS, Nasdaq: OGSI) today announced it has achieved the integration of two cutting-edge proteomics technologies -- Isotope Coded Affinity Tag (ICAT(TM)) reagents, and MALDI TOF/TOF tandem mass spectrometry in an industralised platform. This next-generation platform, now deployed at OGS, will complement OGS' existing 2D-gel/mass spectrometry technology to provide exceptional speed, sensitivity and quality of proteomic analysis. This in turn is expected to accelerate the discovery of novel drug targets and disease biomarkers.
OGS leveraged its wide experience of industrial proteomics and bioinformatics to achieve this integration through its early access agreement with Applied Biosystems (NYSE: ABI - news) and through its collaboration with the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB). The ISB has agreed to work exclusively with OGS to develop this industrial high-throughput platform for a period of five years. ``Deployment and development of ICAT/TOF-TOF platform in an integrated industrialised way is critical to the future of proteomics,'' said Dr. Reid Townsend, Director of Proteomics at OGS. ``I am delighted that our R&D team at OGS has been able to be the first to achieve it.''
``This collaboration between OGS and the ISB is a model of the value of a complementary approach between academia and industry to develop new integrated platforms that are key to study systems biology,'' said Dr. Leroy Hood, Director of the ISB.
The isotope coded affinity tag technology is a new mass spectrometry-based labeling process for preparing and analysing complex samples such as human tissue to identify the proteins present and determine their relative expression levels. The MALDI TOF/TOF mass spectrometry technology utilises Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation (MALDI) with Time of Flight/Time of Flight (TOF/TOF) technology and bioinformatics to identify, sequence and characterise complex protein samples rapidly and accurately.
``This new platform will allow us to discover, identify and quantify proteins at an unmatched speed,'' said Dr. Raj Parekh, OGS' Chief Scientific Officer. ``Our existing 2D gel/mass spectrometry platform is ideally suited to discovering protein isoforms, which are increasingly important in understanding disease processes. The two platforms together give OGS scientists and our collaborators a strong advantage in discovering pharmaceutically relevant proteins.''
OGS will present its new proteomics analysis platform at a panel discussion and luncheon in New York on 27 July 2001. Dr. Raj Parekh and Dr. Reid Townsend from OGS, will be joined by Dr. Leroy Hood and Dr. Ruedi Aebersold from the ISB, who will discuss their views on proteomics and its impact on biology and medicine in the post-genome era... |
