BioServe and Protein Biotechnologies Collaboration Creates Unique Microarray for Breast Cancer Biomarker Research

SomaPlex(TM) Reverse Phase Protein Microarray Responds to Demand for High-Throughput Research Tool to Profile Protein Expression in Breast Serum


BELTSVILLE, MD and RAMONA, CA--(Marketwire - April 7, 2010) -  BioServe and Protein Biotechnologies today announced the availability the SomaPlex™ Reverse Phase Protein Microarray, created in a collaboration that combines serum samples from BioServe's Global BioRepository with the custom microarray expertise of Protein Biotechnologies.

SomaPlex™ Reverse Phase Protein Microarrays rapidly profile protein expression in serum collected from human breast cancer patients. Its ability to simultaneously identify multiple proteins in multiple serum specimens has broad applications in biological and biomedical research, and responds to an increasing demand for high-throughput screening of protein targets from multiple specimens. The SomaPlex Reverse Phase Protein breast cancer microarray is the first in a series of cancer-specific microarrays the companies will be introducing in 2010.

"The SomaPlex protein microarray is a unique platform ideally suited to helping cancer researchers accelerate the discovery and screening of known and novel protein biomarkers," said Rama Modali, President, BioServe.

"Combining the strengths of our two companies has resulted in a valuable tool in the field of cancer proteomics that we believe will help advance biomarker research to the benefit of patients worldwide," said Phillip Schwartz, President & CEO, Protein Biotechnologies.

Each microarray contains a serum sample with complete demographic and relevant clinical disease-specific data. The microarray utilizes an antibody directed against a specific protein target to determine protein expression, yet the versatility of the tool allows it to be adapted to other protein-specific probes, such as labeled peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, or drugs/ligands.

A range of detection systems can be employed for visualization of the resulting antibody binding, including color development, enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) and fluorescence. The captured image is subsequently processed and analyzed using commercially available, high-resolution scanners or instruments equipped with a charged coupled device (CCD) camera.

Each serum specimen is spotted in duplicate at six different serum concentrations that permits most soluble proteins to retain their native, or non-denatured, structure and activity. Different stages of disease progression are represented, and within each stage specimens are included for positive and negative progesterone and estrogen receptors.

BioServe and Protein Biotechnologies will co-market the SomaPlex™ Reverse Phase Protein Microarray to industry, academic, and government research organizations.

About Protein Biotechnologies
Protein Biotechnologies manufactures and supplies human clinical specimen derivatives, protein and tissues microarray research products and services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, government and academic institutions worldwide. The company provides high throughput, proteomics solutions to understand the cause of human disease and accelerate discoveries for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, diabetes, obesity, allergies, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, inflammatory, and autoimmune disease research. Protein Biotechnologies' research and development goals are focused on creating innovative solutions for high throughput biomarker screening and molecular fingerprinting of protein and nucleic acids using one of the largest sources of high quality, well characterized clinical specimens in the world.

For more information please visit www.proteinbiotechnologies.com or call 760-789-8928.

About BioServe
BioServe provides a comprehensive 'biomaterial to validated data' genomics services platform, helping researchers gain the pre-clinical data for breakthroughs in drug discovery, molecular diagnostics and pharmacogenomics. Utilizing BioServe's genomics services platform, researchers can identify genetic markers, validate drug targets and correlate clinical data with molecular data to accelerate the development of new and safer drugs. BioServe's services extend from nucleic acids processing, DNA synthesis, high throughput sequencing and genotyping, genome wide-scans and gene expression analyses to ready-made large epidemiologically sound case-control studies of inflammatory disorders, endocrine disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and many cancers. BioServe's Global BioRepository provides researchers with a library of 600,000 human DNA, tissue and serum samples linked to detailed clinical and demographic data from 120,000 consented and anonymized patients from four continents.

For more information please visit www.bioserve.com or call 301-470-3362.

Contact Information:

Contacts:

Constantine Theodoropulos
Base Pair Communications
617-816-4637