Project aims to create system that monitors protein degradation patterns.

Swedish firm Denator reported its role in an EU-funded research collaboration that aims to develop a biomarker discovery platform for cancer diagnostics using Denator’s heat-stabilization technology and an array of synthetic peptides. The project will be funded by the EU’s Eurostars program and includes collaborators at Erasmus Medical Center and Amsterdam Medical Center.

The overall aim of the project is to develop and validate a platform that monitors specific protein/peptide degradation patterns in biological fluids and tissues sections. Such patterns are specific to different tissue types and diseases and could help identify new disease markers, Denator suggests.

“To utilize specific degradation patterns correlating to specific cancer types could provide the research community with an important tool to help advance the understanding of the complexity of cancer and eventual early diagnosis,” remarks Theo Luider, M.D., who heads the collaborating team Erasmus Medical Center. “This project holds the potential of immensely facilitating the diagnostic process.”

Denator is exploiting its heat stabilization platform for the development of instrumentation and reagents that enable scientists to stabilize biological samples such as tissue sections or cellular biopsies from the moment of sampling. This capability means all the proteins and other biomolecules in a sample are retained in the same state they were in vivo and prevents the natural degradation processes that could otherwise distort analytical results, the firm claims. Last month Denator raised about $3.8 million in an investment round to support product development and commercial expansion.

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