Company’s biomarker discovery approach has led to two NIH-funded projects in diabetes and cancer.

Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics negotiated an exclusive license to two diabetes biomarkers discovered recently by Intrinsic Bioprobes. The biomarkers are modified forms of blood-circulating proteins that Intrinsic claims are associated with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.

Tests have confirmed that the biomarkers demonstrate statistically significant sensitivity and specificity for differentiating between individuals with pre- and type 2 diabetes and healthy controls, according to the firm. 

Intrinsic discovered the new biomarkers using its mass spectrometric immunoassay technologies. In collaboration with researchers at Yale University, the diabetes-related research was funded in part by a five-year, $2 million phase II STTR grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases awarded in 2007.

In March 2009, Intrinsic won an NCI contract to develop multiplex mass spectrometric immunoassay-based techniques for measuring cancer-related diagnostic biomarkers. The NCI is putting $1.13 million into the two-and-a-half year project, which is supporting its Clinical Proteomic Technologies.

Intrinsic specializes in the development of mass spectrometry-based assays and platforms for rapid and sensitive protein biomarker analysis. The company claims that in contrast to biomarker discovery efforts that are based on shotgun approaches looking at the entire proteome, its strategy is to look at routine proteins in more detail to identify post-translational modifications, point mutations, variants, and truncations.

Intrinsic’s technologies include Mass Spectrometric Immunoassay™, a high-performance immunoassay combining microscale immunoaffinity capture and mass spectrometry for high-throughput analysis of proteins from complex biological matrices. The company’s Bioreactive Mass Spectrometer Probes™ have reportedly been developed to enable rapid, sensitive, and accurate protein characterization.

The technologies are incorporated into the MASSAY™ System, a high-throughput mass spectrometry platform for rapid proteome analysis. Intrinsic is commercializing its technologies through protein-analysis services and through research partnerships.

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