Six years ago, when John Tinsley's postdoctoral advisor at Texas A&Mtold him to find a protocol to introduce proteins into coronary endothelial cells, he couldn't find one in the literature. Tinsley tested a variety of commercial DNA transfection reagents, found one that worked for proteins, and has been using it since then.
Tinsley's experience would be a lot different today. No longer must researchers rely on tedious and toxic procedures, or on proprietary reagents designed specifically for DNA. Instead, the market is growing for so-called protein-transduction reagents, products specifically designed to introduce proteins and peptides into cells.
Though still a relatively small marketplace in comparison to nucleic acid delivery, the field has more than doubled since our last roundup.1 At that time the competition consisted solely of Active Motif and Invitrogen, both of Carlsbad, Calif., and Gene Therapy Systems and Imgenex, both of San Diego. Today's listing adds Avanti Polar ...
