Applera Corporation

Institute for Systems Biology

Other

University of Washington

Perseptive Biosystems Inc.

Dh Technologies Development Pte. Ltd.

George J Vella

Rudolf Hans Aebersold

Subhasish Purkayastha

Sasi K Pillai

Beate Rist

Timothy K Nadler

Huilin Zhou

Yulin Huang

Robert J Lotti

Marcus B Smolka

Kenneth C Parker

Kenneth G Parker

Barrie G Wagenfeld

Sasi Pillai

Rudolf H Aebersold

The invention provides methods for labeling a molecule by contacting a sample molecule with a solid support coupled to a chemical group comprising a cleavable functional group, one or more functional groups, and a reactive group for the sample molecule, under conditions allowing the sample molecule to covalently bind to the reactive group; and cleaving the cleavable functional group, thereby releasing the sample molecule comprising the one or more functional groups, which can be a tag. The invention also provides a solid support covalently coupled to a chemical group comprising a cleavable functional group, a mass spectrometry tag and a reactive group for covalently attaching a sample molecule, wherein the cleavable functional group, the tag and the reactive group are positioned relative to each other to allow transfer of the tag to the sample molecule upon cleavage of the cleavable functional group.

Methods for isolating and labeling sample molecules

Methods for isolation and labeling of sample molecules

Polypeptides are electroblotted through a digestion membrane to a composite capture membrane that can be directly analyzed using mass spectrometry. The molecular weights of the fragments generated by the digestion membrane are then used to identify the polypeptide from which they originated. The digestion membrane contains an immobilized protease such as trypsin, which cleaves the electroblotted polypeptides into fragments during electroblotting with such high enzyme cleavage capacity and efficiency that one pass of the polypeptide through the membrane is sufficient. The peptide fragments are collected onto a composite capture membrane that is chemically treated, for example by adding a mixture of nitrocellulose and MALDI matrix, so as to absorb peptides near the surface to facilitate desportion, thereby increasing the sensitivity of subsequent analysis by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. A wide variety of application are disclosed including identifying proteins separated on a gel or within a tissue sample.

Method and apparatus for the identification and quantification of biomolecules

Methods using gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry for the rapid, quantitative analysis of proteins or protein function in mixtures of proteins derived from two or more samples in one unit operation are disclosed. In one embodiment the method includes (a) preparing an extract of proteins from each of at least two different samples; (b) providing a set of substantially chemically identical and differentially isotopically labeled protein reagents; (c) reacting the extract of proteins from different samples of step (a) with a different isotopically labeled reagent from the set of step (b) to provide two or more sets of isotopically differentially labeled proteins; (d) mixing each of the two or more sets of isotopically labeled proteins to form a single mixture of isotopically differentially labeled proteins; (e) electrophoresing the mixture of step (d) by an electrophoresing method capable of separating proteins within the mixture; (f) digesting at least a portion of one or more separated proteins of step (e) and (g) detecting the difference in the expression levels of the proteins in the two samples by mass spectrometry based on one or more peptides in the sample of labeled peptides. The analytical method can be used for qualitative and particularly for quantitative analysis of global protein expression profiles in cells and tissues, i.e. the quantitative analysis of proteomes.

Process for analyzing protein samples

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Medway, MA, United States of America

George J Vella