Protein Forest Files Patent on Chip Based Technology for Quantitative Western Blotting

Protein Forest develops novel solutions based on its proprietary parallel isoelectric focusing technology, known as the digital ProteomeChip™ (dPC™) for protein analysis and proteomics. The company has recently filed a patent (“Systems and Methods for Quantitative Analyte Transfer”) for a technology that virtually eliminates the variable loss of protein during Western blot transfers which can range from 10 – 40% due to transfer membrane ‘blow-through’.

The technology described in this patent extends the utility of the dPC™ sample fractionation platform to allow direct, Western Blot quantitation using the same chip based sample fractionation developed for Mass Spec. This innovation enables the researcher to conduct quantitative Western blotting for the first time.

Protein Forest has manufactured a new product using this technology, the isoelectric Western Blot or iWB ™ system. Protein samples are rapidly (30 minutes) and reproducibly separated and concentrated by parallel isoelectric focusing using the digital ProteomeChip™ (dPC™) system. Protein fractions captured in the chip are transferred directly to a membrane that has been modified to eliminate protein loss. This transfer is performed using the iWB™ blotting membranes with a semi-dry blotting apparatus. The entire transfer procedure is completed in 15 minutes.
The iWB™ system is currently being evaluated at the Barnett Institute at Northeastern University, the Proteomics Center at Children’s Hospital Boston and at the Proteomic Fractionation Group at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.