> Pressure BioSciences developed the pressure-enhanced enzymatic proteolysis method based on its pressure-cycling technology (PCT). The company’s benchtop, automated Barocycler® NEP2320 performs rapid cycling of hydrostatic pressure from ambient to high pressure (up to 35,000 psi) to accelerate enzymatic digestion of proteins by as much as 10-fold.
Under high pressure, proteins will unfold, facilitating digestion. Both the NEP2320 and the larger NEP3229 utilize PULSE™ tubes to hold the sample. The tubes are submerged in distilled water in the reaction chamber of the Barocycler.
The PCT MicroTubes were designed for MS-based proteomic analysis; they are made of an inert fluoropolymer, with a chemically resistant, nonwetting surface to minimize sample adsorption.
> Hudson Surface Technology’s µFocus technology produces single-use, thin, stainless steel MALDI targets that contain hydrophilic regions on a hydrophobic surface to achieve concentrated deposition of samples in uniform matrix crystals.
> Protein Discovery recently introduced three new cartridge kits for its Gelfree™ 8100 Fractional System. The eight-channel fractionation cartridges are designed for different protein molecular weight ranges: <60 kD (low mass kit), 35–150 kD (mid mass kit), or 60–300 kD (high mass kit).
> Sage-N Research, a computational proteomics company, featured its Sorcerer proteomics platform for identifying and characterizing proteins in various disease states and for stem cell research.
Researchers can load MS spectral data in a variety of formats onto the Sorcerer platform, which performs protein identification and characterization of phospho-proteins and other post-translational modifications (PTM).
The SEQUEST 3G search engine can be used as a plug-in scoring module on the Sorcerer. It performs high-throughput spectrum matching, mass accuracy calculations, PTM enumeration, cross-correlation scoring of matches, ranking, and computation of scores, which can then be exported or utilized on the Sorcerer platform.