The Proteomics Toolbox

Courtesy of Beckman Coulter Beckman Coulter's ProteomeLab PF 2D Protein Fractionation System Fullerton, Calif.-based Beckman Coulter recently announced a new program to tackle the development of tools for proteomics research from a systems biology standpoint. Called ProteomeLab™, the initiative integrates existing technology with new instrumentation and software to "simplify, automate, and standardize the multiple processes involved in protein research," says Jeff Chapman, strategic marketing manager for Beckman Coulter. The ProteomeLab line breaks proteomics-based research into a series of steps--identification, isolation, fractionation, characterization, evaluation, and diagnosis--and aims to develop products that will function together seamlessly to take researchers from the early stages of disease marker identification through the development of diagnostic tests. "Our approach here is significantly different than other companies," explains Chapman, "in that rather than just looking at one area, we're looking at how to integrate, standardize, and automate these steps, and have them communicate with each other during the process so that you're not creating a bottleneck at one stage but moving the research from the first cellular identification through diagnosis." As part of the new venture, Beckman Coulter plans to release several new proteomics-related instruments this spring. One such product is the ProteomeLab PF 2D Protein Fractionation System, an automated, two-dimensional chromatographic system that fractionates high- and low-abundance proteins from complex cell lysates. The system separates proteins first by pI and then by hydrophobicity; one and two-dimensional maps of the sample can then be generated using Beckman Coulter's ProteomeLab PF 2D software. Chapman explains that the PF 2D system is the first of its kind on the market. "Nobody has successfully commercialized an automated fractionation system," Chapman says. "2-D gels are still the primary mechanism that people have been using to try to fractionate thousands of proteins," he adds. And strategic marketing manager John Hobbs notes that the PF 2D offers several advantages over traditional two-dimensional gels: greater dynamic range, higher reproducibility, better quantitative precision, and amenability to automation. Another upcoming release, the ProteomeLab PA-800, is a capillary electrophoresis-based instrument for automated, high-resolution protein characterization, which provides users with information about a sample's isoelectric point, molecular weight, and carbohydrate profile and offers tools for studying protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid, and protein-drug interactions, says Chapman. The PA-800 is designed to integrate with the PF 2D system for automated characterization of fractions of interest; both systems are linked by common instrument control and data-analysis software. For further protein characterization, Beckman Coulter offers the ProteomeLab DU-800™, a spectrophotometry-based system for the analysis of enzyme kinetics and protein concentration and purity. The company also plans to release a new protein microarray system called A2, which features a universal linker technology that enables users to conjugate a nucleic acid or oligonucleotide "zip code" to their probes that match complementary sequences on an activated microarray slide. Chapman says that this technology overcomes problems with protein adsorption to array surfaces. "We basically are providing an enabling tool for people to create microarrays more easily than with what they've had before," he says. One focus of the ProteomeLab initiative is the identification of gaps in the proteomics research chain and the development of products to fill them. Chapman says that future products will address problems associated with the fractionation of membrane proteins and the analysis of post-translational modifications in very small samples, for example. Further enhancements to Beckman Coulter's existing technologies will also be made to allow integration of all stages of the research process, says Chapman, who adds that the company's existing product line is central to the goal of complete automation. "We have automated liquid-handling systems, which interface with most of these processes," he says, "so [the goal of integration] is omnipresent in all of the work that we're doing here under the umbrella of ProteomeLab." --Aileen Constans

The Proteomics Toolbox

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