Bruker Daltonics, Protein Discovery Collaborate

Bruker Daltonics Inc., a Billerica, Mass., maker of life science research tools based on mass spectrometry, and Protein Discovery Inc., a Knoxville, Tenn., provider of mass spectrometry sample preparation products and services, announced recently they will collaborate to introduce scientists to the protein biomarker discovery capabilities of Maldi (Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization).

Molecular imaging mass spectrometry: 12 microns thick mouse brain slice. M/Z = 14116. Results obtained by Protein Discovery using the Maldi Molecular Imager from Bruker Daltonics. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Protein Discovery holds a license from Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn., to provide imaging mass spectrometry services, which it provides to customers in the research, pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries. Bruker Daltonics makes the Maldi Molecular Imager, for research use only, that has been optimized for this technique in collaboration with Richard Caprioli, a professor at Vanderbilt. The companies said they anticipate "significant synergy effects" from the collaboration, as they expect to benefit from the increasing popularity of Maldi imaging mass spectrometry.

Maldi molecular imaging mass spectrometry: 12 microns thick mouse brain slice. Green = m/z 8565, Red = m/z 15,200. Results obtained by Protein Discovery using the Maldi Molecular Imager from Bruker Daltonics. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Maldi molecular imaging mass spectrometry reads cell-type-specific protein and peptide mass spectra directly from sliced tissues. The imaging resolution of the technique enables differential mass spectrometry analysis of adjacent tissue types within a single tissue slice, such as cancerous vs. noncancerous regions. Maldi imaging mass spectrometry is very promising for research and discovery of future diagnostic and prognostic protein biomarkers, Bruker Daltonics said. Protein Discovery's Maldi imaging mass spectrometry service laboratory is outfitted with Bruker Daltonics' instrumentation.

Sheila Baker, PhD, senior research scientist at Protein Discovery, and President and CEO Chuck Witkowski review Maldi mass spectrometry molecular images. (Photo: Business Wire)

"The capabilities and applications of Maldi imaging mass spectrometry have now been well documented in the scientific literature by researchers who picked up on it early," said Chuck Witkowski, CEO at Protein Discovery. "However, until recently, there was little vendor support for imaging mass spectrometry, so biologists and research clinicians couldn't really see what the technique could accomplish for their own research.

"With the Bruker Daltonics Maldi Molecular Imager, we now can show them the power of this new technique on their own research samples, Witkowski said. "We're already conducting a number of pilot-scale projects for research groups looking for cell-type-specific protein spectra that they can map directly onto a histological tissue slice image."

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