Top-Down Approach to Protein Profiling 10s–100s of Complex Biological Samples

in 2006 to provide researchers engaged in biomarker discovery with a high-throughput, high-sensitivity approach to protein expression profiling. The ProteinChip system incorporates chip-based applications with top-down mass spectrometry (MS) for protein profiling, an area of research that has typically relied on more conventional approaches such as 2-D gel electrophoresis. Since its introduction, the ProteinChip system has been used by researchers in many fields of study to discover biomarker candidates from a variety of sample types. Until now, researchers have had to choose between such top-down intact protein profiling methods and digest-based bottom-up methods utilizing high-performance MS for biomarker discovery. Bio-Rad has recently partnered with Bruker Daltonics to combine the benefits of the SELDI chromatographic retention sample preparation technology with the high-performance mass spectrometers also used for bottom-up proteomic analyses, providing researchers with both discovery methods on one platform.