Breaking Barriers: Practical Approaches to Translating Proteins from Biomarker Candidates to Verified Biomarkers
Mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic biomarker discovery pipeline commonly begins with large-scale profiling techniques detecting thousands of candidate biomarkers. Efficiently triaging these biomarker candidates for advancement to the biomarker verification stage of the biomarker development pipeline is not trivial. Historically, immunoassays have been used as the method of choice for targeted protein quantification. However, these antibody-based methods include several limitations, including cross-reactivity due to poor specificity and selectivity, which limits the multiplexing abilities of these assays.
Targeted MS methods such as parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) can overcome these limitations by identifying and quantifying peptides and proteins in complex biological samples with high accuracy, sensitivity, and reproducibility. A recent advancement in PRM is its application on a novel mass spectrometry platform, the Thermo Scientific™ Stellar™ mass spectrometer which features a dual-pressure linear ion trap mass analyzer. The Stellar MS has significantly enhanced PRM capabilities facilitating quantitative targeted MS analyses that require high measurement precision and accuracy, low limits of detection/quantification, ruggedness, and throughput. In this webinar, Dr. Thomas will provide a glimpse into how PRM on the Stellar MS can be used as a high-throughput targeted MS approach to identify and prioritize novel predictive proteomic biomarkers of drug resistance in ovarian cancer.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how mass spectrometry can be applied during the verification stage of biomarker development
- Understand the enhanced PRM capabilities of the Stellar MS in supporting targeted mass spectrometry applications
- Learn key concepts from consensus guidelines regarding the use of targeted MS for peptide and protein quantification
Presenter: Stefani Thomas, PhD, University of Minnesota, Assistant Professor
Stefani earned her BA in Biological Sciences with a Minor in Music from Dartmouth College and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Southern California. After completing a research postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Robert Cotter at Johns Hopkins, Stefani joined the Center for Biomarker Discovery and Translation at Johns Hopkins where she was a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC). She then completed a Clinical Chemistry postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins and earned board certification from the National Registry of Certified Chemists and the American Board of Clinical Chemistry. Currently, Stefani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Minnesota, she is the Associate Medical Director of the M Health Fairview West Bank Laboratory, and she has authored more than 70 publications. Her research laboratory applies mass spectrometry-based clinical proteomics to elucidate the biology of ovarian cancer towards improved patient stratification for therapeutic treatment.
