Abstract
Lack of antibody reagents and robust quantitative methods with sufficient sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility and throughput has significantly hampered our ability to understand dynamic, protein-based biological processes. My laboratory is addressing this serious barrier by developing targeted mass spectrometry-based technologies to screen and quantify low abundance proteins in a variety of biological contexts including human tissue and plasma. These assays are highly multiplexed, sensitive and specific and do not suffer from interferences that plague immunoassays. Targeted MS-based approaches are helping to usher in a new era of quantitative biology where proteins of interest and their modifications can be robustly measured in any biological context. We are applying these quantitative approaches in the context of a generalizable proteomics-based discovery-through-verification pipeline to identify early biomarkers of cardiovascular injury, breast cancer and infectious disease. These studies are beginning to demonstrate that modern proteomic technologies when coherently integrated can yield novel, credentialed protein biomarker candidates of sufficient merit to warrant real clinical evaluation.
Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):PL01-03.
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