Plasma stands at the forefront of biomarker discovery as the most collected biofluid globally, and when combined with LC-MS based proteomics, it shows great promise for clinical research. Plasma unveils a treasure trove of proteins, each carrying vital information about our physiological state. However, realizing this potential is not without challenges.
The distribution composition in plasma comprises a few proteins of very high abundance surpassing that of potential disease biomarkers by several orders of magnitude. This large dynamic range poses a significant challenge, as high-abundant proteins mask the presence of low abundant ones, hindering their identification and quantification.
Patient plasma samples contain a wide variety of biological components that can be challenging for robust LC-MS analysis as these accumulate across runs in traditional workflows. It is therefore essential to carefully consider every step of the analytical pipeline.
Figure: Neat and MagNet plasma dynamic range plot (descending) of 100% coverage proteins,
annotated with CV% and isoform specific FDA and HDBA putative biomarkers.
Streamline plasma proteomics for enhanced patient outcomes
LC-MS based proteomics enables the quantification of proteins to characterize the individual proteome profile and identifies patterns associated with the current state of health and disease. Researchers can overcome these challenges and accelerate the translation of plasma proteomics research into new applications, ultimately improving patient outcomes with the right technology.
To unlock the full potential, we must be able to address several key aspects. Firstly, the workflow itself should be simple and standardized to facilitate scalability. A robust and reproducible workflow is essential to accommodate the need for large-scale studies.
- Simplified and Standardized Workflow: The complexity of traditional proteomic workflows can hinder scalability and reproducibility. By simplifying and standardizing the workflow, you ensure that the process is easily replicable across different laboratories and levels of expertise. This involves optimizing sample preparation techniques, chromatographic separation methods, mass spectrometry analysis, and data interpretation protocols.
- Robustness and Reproducibility: A robust and reproducible workflow is essential for large-scale studies involving thousands of plasma samples. Ensuring consistency in sample handling, instrument calibration, data acquisition, and data analysis minimizes variability and enhances the reliability of the results. This is crucial for identifying reliable biomarkers and understanding disease mechanisms accurately.
Cost and time are also crucial factors to take into consideration for large-scale plasma proteomics. Running thousands of samples across multiple LC-MS setups emphasizes the importance of reducing overall costs, both in terms of system downtime and sample expenses.
- Cost Reduction: Strategies may include downscaled sample preparation methods that are more cost-effective without compromising data quality, optimizing instrument usage to minimize downtime, implementing automation where possible to reduce labor costs and avoid inevitable human variations.
- Time Efficiency: Time is a critical factor in large-scale plasma proteomics studies, particularly when analyzing numerous samples. Optimization of sample processing, data acquisition, and data analysis pipelines can significantly reduce turnaround times. Automation, high-throughput methods, and advanced data processing algorithms can expedite data generation and interpretation, allowing researchers to quickly identify meaningful biological insights.
Speed up and streamline with automated sample preparation
Automation accelerates plasma proteomics, optimizes throughput, and reduces costs, making it ideal for labs of all experience levels. With automation you can streamline the entire sample preparation process, essentiel when sensitivity and standardization are crucial, thus ideal for plasma proteomics.
Enhanced automation significantly reduces manual labor, improves reproducibility, and gives you more time for critical decision-making. Standardizing the sample preparation adds even more benefits by minimizing batch effects and enabling more reliable data analysis and interpretation. The individual protocols can be precisely programmed and executed in different, modular configurations, ensuring reproducibility across different samples and experiments.
It’s all in the Evotip
The benefits of plasma proteomics outweigh its challenges and grant us the ability to diagnose diseases across the entire body in a single analysis, leveraging the easy accessibility of blood and low-invasive patient samples. The ability to tackle large clinical cohorts in a robust, cost-effective, high-throughput, and sensitive manner opens the door to next-generation protein biomarker discovery as well as expediting clinical implementation of existing marker panels.
With the Evosep One, we aim to simplify the scaling-up process, offering a solution that is both easy to implement and cost-effective. The Evosep One not only facilitates robust and reproducible high-throughput analysis of large cohorts but is also complemented by automated Evotip loading. The Evotip speeds up your sample loading, reduces carry-over, and is a significant contribution to making proteomics easy and routine. The Evotip acts as a disposable trap column and protects the analytical column to allow thousands of samples to be analyzed on a single column. This eliminates uncertainties and ensures reliable results without the risk of contamination.
The Evosep One instrument is for Research Use Only.
More information about large scale plasma proteomics?
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