HUPO, Invitrogen Announce New Standard for Mass Spectrometry

PharmaManufacturing.com
10/11/2007

Invitrogen Corp., a provider of essential life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics, in collaboration with the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO), an international scientific organization that promotes proteomics, on Oct. 11 announced the launch of the HUPO Gold Mass Spectrometry (MS) Protein Standard sampling program. This will become the first commercially available all-recombinant human protein standard for mass spectrometry.

The HUPO Gold MS Protein Standard, which is a defined mixture of known human proteins designed to allow scientists to benchmark the quality of their experimental data and compare results from experiment to experiment, is expected to become an essential tool in data validation for all mass spectrometry-related analysis. This standard should allow scientists to validate and cross-reference their data, independent of sample types processed, mass spectrometry workflows performed, or actual mass spectrometers used.

"With a variety of published mass spectrometry workflows, as well as the large number of instruments and data-analysis software packages available for use, researchers today face major challenges validating and comparing their published data," said John Bergeron, chair of HUPO Scientific Initiatives. "The HUPO Gold MS Protein Standard together with HUPO directed training should lead to field-generated data of greater run-to-run accuracy and reproducibility."

"Currently available standards for mass spectrometry are isolated directly from human samples, so they potentially contain naturally occurring contaminants, as well as proteins subject to natural genetic variations leading to slight changes in protein mass which can contribute to reduced reliability and reproducibility of a standard," said Paul Predki, Invitrogen vice president of Research and Development. "By developing this new standard using recombinant methods, we have designed a valuable resource that will aid scientists in making their substrate identification more definitive and will allow them to reference their efforts on a global research scale."

Samples of the HUPO Gold MS Protein Standard are immediately available to members of HUPO. The entire HUPO Gold MS Protein Standard will be commercially available in the first quarter of 2008. For more information please visit www.invitrogen.com/hupogold.

About HUPO

HUPO (www.hupo.org) was launched on February 9, 2001. On that date, a global advisory council was officially formed that included leading international experts in the field of proteomics from the academic, government and commercial sectors. HUPO's council currently has 48 members from 19 countries, all of whom are renowned proteomics researchers from the academic and industrial sectors. HUPO's headquarters have been located at the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre in Montreal, since January 2005. HUPO now has 2000 founding members from 69 countries.

HUPO promotes the development and awareness of proteomics research and advocates on behalf of proteomics researchers throughout the world. It has benefited from substantial contributions of time and energy from members of HUPO's council, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies around the globe.