Applied Biosystems Brings Out New Real-Time PCR Assays

In a release, the company noted:

The TaqMan Protein Expression Assays enable researchers to correlate relative levels of specific proteins with cell functions and behaviors, such as different disease conditions, or states of pluripotency or differentiation in stem cells. The initial release of these molecular tools includes assays that enable relative quantification of protein markers for pluripotency from limited quantities of cultured human embryonic stem cells.

These new molecular tools offer researchers a more quantitative, simpler, and more standardized approach to protein analysis of various cell types, especially stem cells, compared to other more complex methods that also require large amounts of cell sample. The new assays detect and quantify proteins by a technology that combines an antibody-oligonucleotide-tagged immunoassay with a TaqMan Assay to generate real-time PCR data for specific proteins present in as little as 10-250 cells.

The initial release of these assays in August will consist of six pre-designed protein expression assays. Four of the assays target stem cell pluripotency markers, and two, target more commonly expressed proteins in a variety of cell types. When combined with Applied Biosystems TaqMan Assays for microRNA and messenger RNA and run on one of its family of real-time PCR systems, they form the life-science industry's only quantitative protein analysis method that enables researchers to make comparisons of protein and RNA molecular markers identified on the same platform with the same starting samples.

The new assays for targets in stem cells have already been used by a team of scientists at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands to quantify protein biomarkers for pluripotency using small quantities of human stem cell and testicular germ cell samples. In a study being presented this week at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) conference in Spain, the scientists used the TaqMan Protein Expression Assays to analyze germ cell tumors and derived cell lines to characterize protein biomarkers for stem cell pluripotency. These kinds of biomarkers can potentially be used in research to identify and characterize malignant cells.

Prof Leendert Looijenga, Department of Pathology, Erasmus University Medical Center said "The development of the TaqMan Protein Expression Assays will result in a significant step forward in the investigation of the biology of many proteins, including those involved in stem cell regulation -- both normal and malignant -- using limited amounts of material, in a standardized set up."

Sam Raha, Vice President of Life Technologies' Genomic Assays Business said "This innovative real-time PCR technology expands our industry-leading line of TaqMan assays for gene expression and genotyping to now include solutions for protein detection and quantitation. Our combined portfolio of TaqMan assays and real-time PCR systems will provide scientists with a more complete picture of the biology of living organisms."

Life Technologies' Applied Biosystems brand is a global provider of optimized instrument systems and workflows to accelerate academic and clinical research, drug discovery and development, pathogen detection and forensic DNA analysis.

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