Faster sample preparation system for proteins used in biomarkers
Pressure BioSciences has developed what it calls its next generation protein preparation system
US-based company Pressure BioSciences has launched a new major sample preparation system for proteins known as PCT-HD, which offers benefits for biomarker discovery.
Based on the company’s pressure cycling technology (PCT), the PCT-HD system combines two of the company’s existing products: the patent-pending Pestle consumable, and the Barocycler NEP2320 instrument. The technology duo is said to allow faster and higher quality homogenisation, extraction and digestion of proteins.
The new system was developed by the company’s scientists together with Professor Ruedi Aebersold and Dr Tiannan Guo of the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology and the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
The two doctors combined the PCT-HD with AB Sciex’s SWATH-Mass Spectrometry method, calling it PCT-SWATH. This new method to analyse thousands of proteins by mass spectrometry on small, needle biopsy samples has the potential to enhance drug discovery and design, which could mean advances in personalised medicine.
Needle biopsy tissues are the biospecimens most relevant to the pathology of diseases, particularly cancer. With the new system, routine high throughput protein analysis on small needle biopsy tissues can be achieved within 12 hours. ‘As we move deeper into the age of precision medicine, there is a critical need continually to have new and improved tools to increase the recovery of proteins from both diseased and normal specimens, especially from small needle biopsy tissue samples,’ said CEO Richard Schumacher.
