Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies Launches New Mass Spectrometry Tools to Advance Public Health and Safety
31 May 2009Applied Biosystems, a division of Life Technologies Corporation, and its mass spectrometry joint-venture partner, MDS Analytical Technologies, a business unit of MDS Inc., developed new mass spectrometry tools to help laboratories in a variety of industries advance their efforts to improve public health and safety.
The Cliquid® 3.0 software and mTRAQ® triplex reagents are designed to enhance food and water contaminant testing, forensic drug screening and protein biomarker research.
Cliquid 3.0 software is an automated software application for contaminant testing and forensic analysis. It enables scientists to identify unknown compounds, expanding the scope of Cliquid software to identify the greatest number of compounds and driving the life science industry’s most comprehensive solution for food and water contaminant testing as well as forensic drug screening for emerging variations of illicit drugs. mTRAQ triplex reagents are a set of chemical reagents that label proteins in complex samples for targeted quantitation. They make biomarker verification more accurate, doubling the throughput of analysis, which is expected to accelerate the use of increasing numbers of biomarkers in clinical settings.
These tools, which are optimised for Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies mass spectrometers, including the AB SCIEX 5500 systems and AB SCIEX TOF/TOF 5800 system, allow scientists to increase their ability to use mass spectrometry systems to identify and quantify compounds or contaminants. For example, food testing laboratories can detect unknown contaminants that may be present in the food supply, while forensic laboratories may be able to identify new designer street drugs in forensic investigations. In the proteomics field, researchers can more rapidly verify and validate biomarkers to support their potential use in clinical settings, including the emergence of personalised medicine.
Laura Lauman, President of Life Technologies’ Mass Spectrometry Systems Division
“Scientists in a variety of industries are continuing to employ the power of mass spectrometry to advance their efforts in improving public health and safety. Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies continues to support these scientists by providing them with innovative technologies that deliver complete workflow solutions, including industry-leading platforms, software and applications.”
Andy Boorn, President of MDS Analytical Technologies
“Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies continues to drive new standards for mass spectrometry-based software applications to maximise the innovation of our platforms. We are evolving our technologies to provide the highest-performing tools, responding to customer requirements to expand the capabilities of laboratories.”
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mTRAQ™ Reagents
Thermo Fisher ScientificThe mTRAQ™ Reagents are duplex amine-specific, stable isotope labeled reagents designed for high confidence protein and peptide biomarker verification using MRM analysis on the QTRAP® system and the triple quadrupole mass spectrometers. * Duplex mass difference tags (Non-Isobaric Amine Tags) * Established chemistry with > 95% labeling efficiency * High selectivity MRM based relative quantitation of proteins/peptides/PTMs * Supports Global Internal Standard workflow for robust reproducible quantitative MRM assays in biomarker verification * Compatible with fractionation * Easy transition from iTRAQ® reagent based discovery to verification. * Significantly more economical compared to synthetic peptide approach for biomarker verification (AQUA) when larger numbers of peptides need to be monitored * Supported by complete suite of software for biomarker verification, including ProteinPilot™ Software, MRMPilot™ Software, and MultiQuant™ Software Innovative Peptide Tagging Chemistry The mTRAQ™ Reagents are duplex non - isobaric peptide labeling reagents that enable you to label all primary amines, regardless of peptide class. The reagents are a variation of iTRAQ Reagent technology, in that the same amine reactive group and similar reporter and balance groups are used (Fig 1). The peptides labeled with the duplex reagents have identical retention time and ionization characteristics but different mass (4 - 8 amu massdifference for Arg and Lys peptides, respectively). The MRM quantitation is performed using the non-isobaric sequence specific ions instead of reporter ions for higher specificity in complex mixtures. High Confidence BioMarker Verification using Robust Methodology Obtain robust performance with Global Internal Standard (GIS) methodology. The GIS is prepared by labeling pooled samples with heavy mTRAQ reagent. This GIS is then spiked into individual sample labeled with light mTRAQ reagent before MRM analysis (Fig2). This offers significant benefits such as * Enables normalization and comparison across o Many patient samples o Entire duration of the Project o Multiple instruments / multiple laboratories * Corrects for experimental inconsistencies o Injection inconsistencies o Changes in MS performance o Changes in LC performance * Most economical approach o Enables quantitation of large number of proteins and peptides by providing a more cost effective way to create internal standards. Complete Solution for Targeted Quantitative Proteomics One key advantage of being able to analyze hundreds of compounds a week is that you can quickly build a substantial database of optimization conditions. Each time you find an optimized set of conditions for a given compound, DiscoveryQuant software stores it in a networked database, which you can then use in assays at any time, in any location, with other mass spectrometers in other labs– a significant advantage for pharmaceutical companies in the age of globally connected data.