Thermo Fisher Scientific Accelerates Biomarker Research at Pronota

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today announced it is helping Pronota, pioneer in biomarker validation through mass spectrometry based in Ghent, Belgium, discover and validate disease biomarkers faster and more cost-effectively with its new HeavyPeptide FasTrack™ service.

Heavy peptides are isotopically labeled peptides (very short fragments of proteins) used as internal standards in mass spectrometry experiments to identify and quantify specific proteins of interest in biological samples. Traditionally, selection of the peptides needed for these experiments and final peptide purification has been time consuming.

FasTrack speeds up the process of peptide selection and purification by providing a selection of crude heavy peptides to immediately begin developing protein assays. The crude peptides are used in mass spectrometry setup and initial analysis to identify the best proteotypic peptides. Once a customer has identified its candidates, Thermo Fisher uses retained crude stock to quickly produce the final purified heavy peptides as Thermo Scientific HeavyPeptide AQUA kits. This cuts process time significantly and eliminates the need for two separate syntheses. It produces highly sensitive results, and because only the peptides specific to the final protein candidates are purified, it reduces customer costs.

“Our new FasTrack service will improve our customers’ quantitative workflows, providing robust data faster while reducing costs,” said Joel Louette, commercial director for the Thermo Fisher Scientific biopolymers business. “By accelerating biomarker validation, we are helping our customers speed the development of new medicines and diagnostics for patients who need them.”

FasTrack is a major advantage for Thermo Fisher customers such as Pronota, a pioneer in biomarker validation through mass spectrometry based in Ghent, Belgium. Pronota is developing next-generation diagnostic tests from the protein biomarkers it discovers and validates in house. In addition, the company collaborates with pharmaceutical companies by providing biomarker discovery and validation in a wide range of clinical and pre-clinical biological samples.

“In the past, we had to wait four to five weeks for purified peptides. Now, we get the crude peptides in about 10 days and can start building our assays right away,” said Katleen Verleysen, vice president of operations and technology development at Pronota. “Coupled with our novel in-house workflow, this means we can now put together highly sensitive, multiplex protein assays in less than six weeks, significantly accelerating biomarker research and development.”

Pronota uses a proprietary discovery platform, called MASStermind®, to discover low-abundance biomarker candidates — proteins whose levels are consistently changing in response to disease or drug treatment. Pronota’s MASSterclass™ biomarker verification platform then employs Thermo Fisher HeavyPeptides to measure the levels of each of the candidates in large groups of samples. Using a novel fractionation method that bypasses the time and cost required to raise antibodies, Pronota can detect and quantify specific target proteins present at low concentrations in the sample.

The company expects to achieve even greater precision and sensitivity with the recent installation of the highly sensitive Thermo Scientific TSQ Vantage triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometer. “With the TSQ Vantage, we expect to be able to achieve 10 to 100 fold increase in sensitivity, enabling us to quantify proteins in the picogram per milliliter concentration range in blood and other complex samples,” said Dr. Huw Davies, director of business development at Pronota. “Together with FasTrack and our fractionation approach, we have positioned ourselves at the forefront of protein assay development and biomarker screening using mass spectrometry.”