We are currently focused on development of antibody for label free protein detection technolgy.
One of the major challenges to us in post-genome era is to characterize the-components and understand the behavior of a cell. Protein science is playing a main role in our efforts because proteins carry out most of the work in a cell, which requires advanced proteomic techniques as central research tools.
Changes in the proteome may be resulted from either by growth, differentiation, senescence, exposure to bioactive agents, or genetic alteration. Proteomics is aimed to perform global analysis of changes in the quantity and post-translational modifications of proteins in a cell, as well as to analyze the network of protein-protein interactions. Identifying dynamic covalent protein modifications in their proper biological context is clearly a biochemical problem, which includes: reversible phosphorylation, one of dozens or hundreds of different estimated modifications, which is critical for transmission of signals in all living cells. For example, deregulation of phosphorylation has been implicated in disease like cancer. This raises the question of which proteins are modified, and how, where and when they are modified. Analysis can only be done at the protein level, and it will involve high-throughput identifications at the highest levels of sensitivity. Same issues and questions can be raised for analysis of protein interactions.
To address these issues, we are making protein-chip-grade antibodies against different proteins, which can be used to carry out protein profiling in an array-style. Most of the technologic difficulties in creating these protein (antibody) chips and collecting target-binding signals have already been solved. We are working on producing unique antibodies that are absolutely specific in recognition of their cognate protein targets, especially for post-translational modified proteins.
This particular approach will provide high throughput, high sensitivity and specificity, as well as real-time dynamic range. Once complete protein chips are available, the proteome project will only begin, not end, as there are infinite number of proteomic snapshots to be taken from many different cell types.