During the past decade, mass spectrometry, notably LC/MS, has become a major approach to identify and quantify proteins in patient samples. It includes analysis before treatments to find the proper biomarkers for cancers diagnostics, and monitoring of the arising of the anti-drug antibodies in human plasma after therapies. Despite the fact that MS has pretty high sensitivity and specificity, research in biotherapeutics requires even more. Immunocapture, and so specific protein enrichment, offer an interesting immunoassay solution. Here, we present simple to use and efficient reagents to improve the immunocapture and thus the output of the MS technology.

Challenges and limitations of ADC development

One of the major challenges of modern medicine is to find a safe cancer therapy. The Food and Drug Administration has approved Adcetris® (brentuximab vedotin) and Kadcyla® (ado-trastuzumab emtansine) that are considered as powerful treatments against cancer. They are good examples of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The principle is to link a drug, that can be cytotoxic, to an antibody able to target cancer cells. Unfortunately, the development of ADCs faces some difficulties. Indeed, depending on the method for the conjugation, the ADC can be highly heterogenous.

Exploring the small RNA transcriptome, a key challenge

Small RNA are involved in numerous biological process and linked to a wide range of conditions. For example miRNA can be used for detection of cancers from blood samples and are used for cancer classification. They are involved in the regulation of the messenger RNA translation.

The small RNA transcriptome is a vast world rich in information. There are not only miRNA but other small RNA that can also be used for diagnostics. For example, Repetto et al in 2015 (doi: 10.1186/s12916-015-0489-y) discovered novel small RNA in blood, s-RNY1-5p as a diagnostic biomarker for atherosclerosis-related diseases. The authors used small-RNA sequencing with the innovative CleanTag technology.

Biomolecule conjugation is critical to many applications such as bead-based assays, ELISA and chromatography by affinity. Unfortunately the classical methods are known to be tedious and with low efficiency. Trilink Biotechnologies has come this year with the solution, an innovative chromophore-linker-based conjugation chemistry called ChromaLink.